"In a stunning upset, Madison's Dairyland Dolls lost to the Windy City Rollers in their round two game," reports the Mad Rollin' Dolls about Heartland Havoc, the eastern regional roller derby championships held in Columbus this weekend. Playing early Saturday afternoon, these Mad-Town all-stars lost by a score of 94 to 63, a defeat that eliminates them from competing at the national championships this September in Austin.
In a pre-bout preview on The Daily Page, Melissa Faliveno describes the tone of the tournament as "down and dirty derby at its best." A Mad Rollin' Doll traveling with the Dairyland squad, she reports on the atmosphere at Battelle Hall in the downtown of The Arch City, the Dolls' scouting of the competition on Friday, and their hopes for the Havoc.
Alas, they were upset by their neighbors to the south. Here are more details about the bout on Saturday as provided by the team:
The DDs came into the tournament ranked number one. Chicago was ranked number 7. But something has been going on south of the state line, and this was a whole new Windy City Team. With a new rock-solid defensive strategy, Chicago dominated the front of the pack on jam after jam. The Dolls blockers tried, but failed to break up the formation. Dolls jammers could not penetrate. Frustration lead to multiple penalties. Windy City did the most damage in jams when the Dolls jammer was cooling her wheels on the bench.
Nevertheless, the Dolls played hard and well, with standout performances by skaters who taught the victorious Chicago girls a lot of the moves they used to defeat the Dolls this afternoon.
A video clip featuring "the last few emotional minutes of the game" in the third period follows below, along with several other highlights from the bout and an interview with the victorious team from Chi-Town.
