Preview: #6 Rat City @ #4 Denver

By Julie Phan, Last updated Fri Jun 11 2010 1:39pm

DENVER, CO -- A major regional clash between top-ten powers goes down Saturday night in Denver as Seattle's Rat City (officially #5 in the WFTDA Western Region, unofficially #6 in the nation via DNN) returns for a rematch with Denver (officially #2 in the WFTDA Western Region, unofficially #4 in the nation via DNN.)

The teams have met twice previously. In August 2009 a high-scoring shootout saw the game extremely close until the last ten minutes. Denver was up by just 7 points at 140-133 at that point, but absolutely buried Rat City on a 48-2 run in the final stretch to win handily, 188-135. Two months later at Western Regionals, Denver stopped Rat City in the third-place bout 172-94 to advance to Nationals.

Rat City has had a pretty active 2010 and successful thus far, having gone 5-2 against some of the toughest competition in derby today. They've taken down Philly, Madison, Charm City, and most recently Texas just last weekend. Notably, though, they haven't been able to edge out their immediate regional competition -- both losses this year have been to Western Region teams, Rocky Mountain (144-107) and Rose City (124-105).

Denver hasn't been quite as busy so far, at 3-0 for the year with their only tough bout coming against Texas (130-112). The high-scoring team put up the 4th biggest blowout of derby history in April when they squashed FoCo (Fort Collins, CO) by a final of 391-14, and also put a serious hurting on #23 Duke City, 262-48, in May.

The Rat City roster is missing Anya Heels, one of the most imposing blockers in the sport, along with small and agile jammer/blocker Wile E. Peyote. They're also missing recent Duke City transfer and team captain Kamikaze Kim, who suffered a concussion in their record-breaking intraleague bout last Saturday. However, the roster is still brimming with nationally-recognized veterans such as Carmen Getsome, Ann R. Kissed, Juliet Bravo, Katarina Whip, and Valtron 3000, as well as Angel City transfer Hard Cora and Jet City transfer Re-AnimateHer. Fans and skaters alike will want to keep an eye on Jalapeno Business, a relative newcomer who has been strongly featured on Rat City's all-star roster this season as a high-scoring jammer.

The Mile High Club roster has seen little change since taking Nationals last fall. Since one of their biggest strengths is cohesive teamwork, it is difficult to select blockers who stand out. Julie “Angela Death” Adams, former figure skater and hockey player, remains a primary jammer. Adams recently skated banked track derby on Team Legit alongside several Rat City skaters. The Mile High Club's other primary jammer is Heather Juska, former speed skater nominated for "Rookie of the Year" on the 2009 Derby News Network Reader’s Poll.

Saturday’s bout has major implications for the all-important Western Regional tournament seeding, as bouts played after June won't affect regional rankings. Rat City's next action isn't until August, when they will be playing Bay Area, Gotham, and Rose City all in the same weekend. Denver will be traveling to the East Coast next week to play Boston and Philly, but both are out of region so results are unlikely to affect their standing in the West.

12 Carmen Getsome // A0 Ann R Kissed // 247 Hard Cora // 17 Ima Handful // 22 Jalapeno Business // 76 Juliet Bravo // 60 Katarina Whip // 13 Kitty Kamikaze // 33 Mona Agony // 73 Primp Daddy // 31 ReAnimateHer // 711 Rebel Belle // 26 Sara Problem // 615 sHedonist // 9 Sirius Mischief // 3000 Valtron
 
99 Tracy Akers // 1982 Ariel Quigley // 303 Heather Juska // 19 Julie Adams // 357 November James // 90 Gabrielle Begeman // 350 Jessica Rivas // 1055 Caitlin Preston // 5 Deirdre Sage // 10 Danica Dolezal // 20 Monica Carson // 311 Kim Wilms // 36 Alaine Olthafer // 262 Andrea Hill // 505 Shannon Dorato // 9 Vicky Cruz