Preview: #13 Madison @ #10 Boston

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Jul 17 2010 3:15pm

BOSTON, MA -- This Saturday night, DNN #10 Boston (officially #3 in the WFTDA Eastern Region) and DNN #13 Madison (#3 in the WFTDA North Central) meet in Boston's Shriner Auditorium in a rematch of one of the 2009 Nationals' most exciting bouts.

Re-live that bout in the archived textcast

Though Boston and Madison are in different WFTDA regions, they've had two previous dramatic meetings in tournament play, with Boston coming out on top twice. In 2008, when both were still in the WFTDA Eastern Region, they met in a consolation-round game at Eastern Regionals; though Boston held a lead for the majority of the game, a huge 18-3 final-jam effort from Madison jammer Wildberry Punch left them just 2 points short of the win in a 90-88 game. In 2009, both teams reached Nationals and faced off in the tournament's first game -- after five lead changes and 58 minutes, Madison was trailing at 104-98, but jammer penalties on both teams allowed Boston to escape with a 0-0 final jam and the win.

This year, both teams have losing records, but have been acquitting themselves admirably against some top flight competition. Madison's 0-4 record includes a very close 115-104 loss against the North Central's long-reigning champs Windy City (#11 nationally) and a decent 170-119 showing against 2009 champs Oly (#1 nationally).

Boston stands at 3-5 on the 2010 campaign, with a similar margin against Oly (125-60) along with a solid showing against #2 Gotham at ECE, 164-82 -- though the final margin left them doubled up, it was a much closer game than Gotham's previous 2010 blowouts of #8 Charm City (201-75) and #11 Windy City (191-50). Most impressively, Boston also looked to be on the path to a big upset of #6 Rose City at ECE, up 53-23 at the half before Rose City stormed back to win 87-61.

Rosterwise, Boston has a bit of a question mark in Shellby Shattered, who returned from injury at ECE but looked a little short of 100%; Lois Carmen Dominator is still recovering from an injury of her own and is listed as an alternate. Madison no longer has wily jammer Juke Boxxx, and long-standing veteran Mouse won't be making the trip out for this one, giving Madison slightly less depth at the jammer line than they had in the last Boston / Madison meeting.

Madison will play a closed but WFTDA sanctioned bout against Gotham on the Sunday morning following the Boston bout; Gotham hasn't had too much trouble this year, building a 3-0 record and outscoring their opponents by a total of 556-207.

Anita Bangher  21+ // Anna Wrecks'Ya 101 // Britknee Breaker 10-4 // Claire D. Way  1984 // Harley Quinn  9669 // Harlot Fevah 99 // Killary Clinton 2008   // Krushpuppy 843 // Lil' Paine 451 // Maura Buse 34B // Mrs. Dash 360 // Pina Collidah 77  // Quick Sandy 24 // Shellby Shattered -0

Aleta the Hun #1212 // Allie Gator #18 ft long // Charlie Hustle #33 // Chop Suzzy #311 // Darling Nikki #14 // Dolly Pardon Me #925 // Elle Machete #900 // Jewels of DeNile #99 // Lil Miss Behavin' #6.6 // Ninja #21ish // STank Girl #77 // Tango de Muerte #22 // Vicious van GoGo #1853 // Wildberry Punch #27