Charm City Upsets Texas, 154-146

By Phil Arnold, Last updated Wed Jun 30 2010 4:08pm

Reposted with permission from Phil Arnold's Examiner page.

AUSTIN, TX -- Baltimore's Charm City Roller Girls, unofficially ranked #11 in the nation, used excellent team blocking in a late rally as they upset #8 Texas 156-148 Sunday evening in Austin, Texas.

The Texas Rollergirls started off strong in this home bout, rolling out to a 31-0 lead. In the opening scoring run, Luce Bandit scored nine points for Texas in the third jam and Olivia Shootin' John scored 15 points in the fifth jam of the night. But the 31-point lead didn't last for long as Charm City started chipping away, with a huge 19-point jam by Lady Quebeam narrowing the lead to 31-28 after ten jams. Texas was up by 13 at the half with a 78-65 lead.

The visitors cut into the lead in the fourth jam of the final period as Dolly Rocket put up a 12-4 jam to make the score 84-80 in favor of Texas, though Charm couldn't close the gap just yet. In the 12th jam of the half, Charm City's Holden Grudges dropped a 19-0 and narrowed the Texas lead to just a point at 117-116. Texas added a few points here and there in this very physical battle to take a 127-120 lead after the 17th jam.

Charm City struck with the big jam of the night that swung the bout in the 18th jam. A powerjam for Charm City's Flo Shizzle highlighted Charm City's amazing team blocking. She scored on pass after pass, as Charm was able to drive Texas blockers out of bounds and then skate clockwise to try to trap the blockers into cutting the track penalties. As Flo sped around the track, the pack actually moved back towards her as Charm City's trapping game slowly drove the pack clockwise. When it was all over Texas had lost two blockers to the penalty box and lost the lead as well, with the 24-0 jam putting Charm up 144-127.

Only a few more points went up on the board before the final jam. With 34 seconds left on the game clock and Charm City up 148-129, Bloody Mary lined up for Texas and took lead jammer status over Holden Grudges, needing a 19-0 to tie. Though Mary got the better of the full length jam, Holden completed a full scoring pass and a partial pass before removing herself from play on injury -- and the resultant 17-6 jam win for Texas was not enough to close the gap.

The leading scorers for the Charm City Roller Girls were Lady Quebeaum with 41 points, Flo Shizzle with 32 points, Holden Grudges with 28 points, and Just Carol with 22 points each. Top blockers for the team from Baltimore were Joy Collision, Holly GoHardly, Dolly Rocket, and Rosie the Rioter.

The top scorers for the Texas Rollergirls were Bloody Mary with 56 points, Olivia Shootin' John with 54 points and Luce Bandit with 36 points. The leading blockers for the Texas Rollergirls included Belle Starr, Curvette, Lucille Brawl, and Babe Ruthless.