Weekend Preview, August 26-28

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Aug 26 2011 4:03pm

San Diego @ #10 Windy City: Non-WFTDA San Diego hasn't had too many opportunities against highly ranked WFTDA teams during the WFTDA regular season, but they pick it up late in the year; after this weekend's game with #10 WCR, they take on #3 Rocky Mountain and #15 Steel City in October. SDDD has seen a lot of turnover since a fairly strong 2010, losing key players Steely Jan, Bonnie D.Stroir, Dahmernatrix, Ivanna S. Pankin and Trish the Dish; they're also without one of their primary jammers this weekend on an injury to Kiki DiAzz. Windy City isn't quite at full strength either for this one, with team captain Ol' Drrty Go-Go out on injury, but rankings and history suggest Windy City is a big favorite in this one. WCR is now 10-1 on the year with their only loss to #6 Bay Area earlier this month; San Diego is 0-2 against WFTDA teams this year (a narrow 77-73 loss to #19 Carolina in April and a big 174-49 loss to BAD in May). WCR's B-team, the Second Wind, faces off against a A/B mix from Ohio Rollergirls in the undercard. Saturday, 7:30pm Central (undercard at 6pm.) Live coverage for this bout is currently tentative -- check back!

#1 MRDA St. Louis GateKeepers @ YMMD: A key matchup for the top-ranked team in the MRDA, as YMMD is the only team to have defeated them this year in a narrow 116-105 game. However, YMMD has also lost this year to Puget Sound and Twin Cities Terrors, teams that the GateKeepers soundly defeated. With the MRDA ranking period closing next month and some wildly varying bout results thus far this year, YMMD could either make a strong case for holding the #1 seed in the 6-team MRDA championship tournament, or St. Louis could leave them on the fence for qualifying with a dominating win. Saturday.

#9 Rat City vs #4 MRDA Puget Sound: In a rare matchup between WFTDA and MRDA teams, men's team Puget Sound tries their luck against one of the most experienced leagues in women's derby, Rat City. Puget Sound's not new to the setup, though, having played a similar game earlier this year against a mix of Oly skaters and regional visitors (the women's side won that one 159-140.) With Puget Sound ranked #4 out of #11 currently ranked teams in the MRDA, this matchup is the highest-level full-length bout ever played between WFTDA and MRDA teams. Sunday, 6pm Pacific.

#11 MRDA Central Mass Mass Maelstrom @ #5 MRDA Pioneer Valley Dirty Dozen: Central Mass has had some trouble keeping their bout dates this year and were the only active MRDA team to miss the Spring Roll tournament in May, leaving them in the bottom of the rankings with an 0-2 recede. They'll need a very strong showing against Pioneer Valley to fight their way up towards the top six and a potential invite to the October MRDA championships. PVRD is 2-3 on the year but has acquitted themselves well against higher-ranked MRDA teams; a 165-120 loss to #3 Magic City, 127-102 to #4 Puget Sound and 164-96 to #2 New York. Saturday, 6pm Eastern.

WFTDA action in a fairly light weekend sees #1 Oly against Emerald City, FoCo (Fort Collins, CO) taking on Pueblo (Pueblo, CO), Jacksonville visiting Hard Knox, Southern Indiana going to Dixie, Central Coast hosting Sacred City, Pikes Peak and #4 Denver hosting DC, and Queen City also doing a two-bout weekend against Hudson Valley and Long Island.