2011-2012 Season Schedule
Get ready for a season eight with the Minnesota RollerGirls - Minnesota’s original roller derby league.The fall bouts will feature your favorite four home teams and the winter/spring months will feature the All-Star bouts.
Saturday, October 15
Saturday, November 19
Saturday, December 17
Saturday, January 21 (home team championship)
Saturday, February 4
Saturday, February 18 with Minnesota Swarm
Saturday, March 3
Saturday, March 31
News
Tournament Recap: Derby never quits: the 2011 MNRG All-Star Season - part 2
Sunday, December 25, 2011
For Part 1 of this series (the runup to the Indianapolis 2011 regional tournament), start here.
Arrival:
All-Stars, league members, and fans alike came in throughout Tournament Thursday. We packed six people and their roller stuff precariously into cab vans built for four, found our hotels, and collapsed. Minnesota’s not known to be a hard-partying team on the first several nights of tournaments; horrible marathons of television and late-night work sessions tend to be our speed. (You know all those “businesswoman by day/derbygirl by night” articles that get written about us? You have to work on your presentations sometime…)
Derby tournaments start early and usually run like well-oiled machines with a battalion of players from the hosting league running the show. In addition, members of the WFTDA staff, medics, storefronts, announcers, and the zeebs – referees and non-skating officials – all had their own tight schedules.
In the middle of it all, the players practice, plan, and finally hit the track at their appointed time. Minnesota played third on the first day of the tournament. We took out Madison for the second time in a year and the 4th time in a row. Last year, the two teams played for the right to skate in the regional finals; this time, only one of these teams could make it into the North Central final four.
Game 1: (Madison v MNRG – quarter-final)
Minnesota broke free early in the first half and put twenty points on the board from a Madison jammer penalty and put up 20. Five minutes later, Minnesota took another power jam opportunity and scored 22. In the lopsided opening minutes, Minnesota scored multiple lead jams that – with the first two power jams – brought the score to 50-0. Madison went scoreless until the eleventh minute when Mouse snuck through traffic to score three…but Madison’s jammer again went to the box shortly thereafter, and Minnesota dropped another eighteen points. 78-3 after fifteen.
Madison’s rookie Magic Missile and Charlie Hustle got Madison back scoring again as Minnesota’s brutal pack play began to backfire. The MNRG pack members flew to the box; Madison took advantage of those opportunities, stringing out the remaining MNRG defense across the track offense as Busta Crimes and the Madison pack holed up Minnesota jammers on the outside. Nonetheless, the half ended with Minnesota breaking the century mark, 108-29 MNRG up. Minnesota had a fine first half, punctuated by patient work in the front by Scarmen Hellectra and Diamond Rough, while Tiki, Juke, and Secondhand Smoke bowled for Dairyland Dolls in the back of the pack.
Minnesota built on their established lead by scoring 19 points on a Madison jammer penalty in the second jam (131-34). Madison led in lead jams (11-10) in the second half, but MNRG’s defense ran a hold-and-hit strategy that kept Madison from consistently capitalizing on their leads: an MNRG blocker or two would create a wall that the Madison jammer could not penetrate, then a rear defender (sometimes called a ‘sweeper’) would come forward and drop the jammer. Minnesota opened a hundred-point-wide gap after ten minutes of play in the half (144-42), and Madison could not overcome the gap. Minnesota’s MEDUSA reached 200 for her team in the twenty-fifth minute for her team; Minnesota completed the win, 218-81.
Psycho Novia: I think the biggest thing with our Madison bout was that we didn’t EVER want to underestimate any of our opponents. We saw that happen a couple times at western regionals, so I just tried to reinforce that although Madison had a tough summer with a few losses, it was important to come out strong and show everyone that we weren’t just there for the after parties. We came out with our guns loaded and we didn’t hold anything back for that bout.
One other thing to note about the Madison game that might not have been apparent to the casual watcher: Minnesota did nothing unusual in that game. They played classic, back-to-basics roller derby with no frills. They held back no effort and scored the biggest blowout of the tournament…but they weren’t ready to play all their cards quite yet. That would guarantee surprises for the next two games.
With the first game won, Minnesota dropped their gear off in the back, had a team meeting, and joined their fans in the stands. The MNRG’s day on the track was done, but the other three teams that would make up the champion’s bracket (those that would place 1st-4th in the tournament) had yet to be determined. The All-Stars – students of the sport – watched their potential opponents amidst friends, fans, and family.
The Windy City played first against Arch Rival and bested them 200 – 82. Windy’s unbeaten Streak against North Central teams marched on. Detroit made fast work of Brewcity (174-59) and became the next team in our way to the WFTDA Championships. Finally, Naptown took down Cincy 166-113 and claimed the 4th berth of the semi-finals. Day 2 would come quickly.
The team met together early – as per usual – to work out the final plans. Detroit had been the heavy favorite to be our rivals in the semi-finals. With the 2nd-seed, they were also slight favorites to win the bout, as the Detroit Derby Girls had been incrementally better than us at similar match-ups in 2011. Like Minnesota, the league had done everything they could to improve their play over the 2011 season – including a trip to the Pacific Northwest to play against a trio of world class teams: the 2009 WFTDA champion Oly Rollers, Seattle’s brilliant Rat City, and up-and-coming Rose City. What’s more, Detroit had come closer than any other team in the North Central to ending the WCR Streak. They wanted their shot, and Minnesota stood between them and Windy.
Game 2: (Detroit v MNRG – semi-final)
Psycho Novia: We trained for Detroit the same way we trained for Philly. We knew it would be a hard hitting game, so we just practiced 100% and went all out during practice. On off days, teammates would get together to go skating around the lakes or for running stairs. We knew our endurance would be key for a long weekend of bouts. We wanted to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally, so we also watched a lot of their footage so we would know what we would be going up against. Going into halftime, I believe that we talked about working together more as a team. We played great in the first half and outscored Detroit by a bunch, but then they went on a run and came back to make for a close game before halftime. We just emphasized teamwork, staying out of the box and playing smart, and we knew that a win would seal the deal for nationals.
Detroit’s defense held down Minnesota in the opening jams, but Minnesota took an early lead after five minutes. Fueled by a 30-point jam from the MNRG’s L’exi-Cuter, Minnesota’s point gap went as high as 36 points in the opening fifteen minutes (44-8 Minnesota up). Detroit took advantage of two consecutive track-cut majors and burst back into the lead, only for Minnesota to regain it. However, the MNRG could not stay far ahead and went into halftime up 76-70.
Minnesota held their small lead into the second half, taking consecutive lead jams several times and holding Detroit’s jammer arsenal from scoring for minutes at a time. Detroit’s Racer McChaseHer regained the lead for her team with fifteen minutes to go (Detroit 94-91 MNRG), but Minnesota took it right back. Detroit scored only twice more in the game, and Minnesota scored the victory on patient clock-burning. Final score: MNRG 127 – 106 Detroit.
Juke Boxx: We are a different-sized team than they are. We did a lot of preparation on how to use your body differently and wall formations to stop their powerhouse jamming style. Going into the half, we were confident with how we were playing even though it was back and forth. I did feel that we were able to control when we needed to and I never felt that we got frazzled. We played the full 60 minutes of super-smart derby.
When Minnesota went into halftime, Coach Dan pointed out that they were about to enter a ‘dip’. Many of the All-Stars were largely staying out of the box but nonetheless had accrued several minor penalties. The dip completed with Detroit’s lead change due to Racer, but MNRG’s steady play won the game.
Near the conclusion of the Detroit game, Second Hand Smoke lost her footing on top of a Detroit player in a way that the referees deemed unsafe. The officials conferred and charged her with an automatic ejection from the game. Following the match, the officials decided to take further steps and barred Smoke from the final. Minnesota replaced Second Hand Smoke with Jax Kvaas for the final.
Later in the day, the Windy City Rollers succeeded – barely – in defeating Naptown for the right to play Minnesota in the finals. Minnesota would play once again the WCR for the North Central Championship.
The NC is known for being a region in a constant state of change. Teams travel up and down the ranking ladder in a matter of months instead of years. This year’s final day exceeded those expectations as a short-staffed, 10th-ranked Ohio upset Madison, 7th-seed Brewcity defeated #5 Cincy, #8 Chicago Outfit upset #7 Arch Rival for fifth, and 4th-ranked Naptown succeeded in their quest to reach the WFTDA Championships by defeating #2 Detroit. Four upsets. The crowd was ready for a fifth.
Game 3: (Windy v MNRG)
The Minnesota RollerGirls went ahead early in the match against the mighty Windy City, taking the first three jams and scoring seven unanswered points. Windy responded with a fast, solid moving wall of defensive play, putting the Minnesota team on the back foot. Windy – having taken the lead in the fifth minute – had serious foul problems that Minnesota could not capitalize on because of an inability to burst through WCR’s speeding pack.
Minnesota came back into the lead at the close of the half on a Harmony Killerbruise triple slam. At halftime, MNRG was up 53-41. A change in jammer rosters at halftime brought Jackie Daniels into heavy jammer rotation for Windy, and Jackie went 5-for-7 on her lead jams. Windy went back into the lead on a Daniels-fueled 15-point jam and took advantage of two power jams to score 28 additional, unanswered points. Windy City kept up their concentration on speed of the pack and went 82-45 in the second half, taking the championship for their 3rd consecutive year. Final: WCR 123 – 100 MNRG.
Psycho Novia: For the WCR bout, we knew we had to play smart and clean in order to pull off the win. It always comes down to penalties, and unfortunately we got a lot of calls not in our favor in the second half that resulted in a loss. Also, we couldn’t capitalize on a lot of our power jam situations, which was a key part of losing that game.
Of the nine other teams at the NC Regionals, only Windy City had the stamina and speed to be able to keep up with Minnesota’s pack. Jackie Daniels had much to do with the victory in the second half; previously, she had contributed a great deal to their victory over Naptown. However, it was Windy’s pack play that won the day. The WCR expertly created dense walls at the front of the pack whenever a Minnesota jammer would take lead. They kept themselves in front of Minnesota’s defenders and skated like jammers. That meant that our own jammers had to weave through our blocking staff before attempting to score against the opposing team at close to sprinting speeds.
We came close that game to breaking Windy’s unbeaten streak against Northern teams…but even with that defeat, Minnesota suddenly had a greater challenge.
Aftermath:
“Charm. Yeah. We’ve got that.” –Scarmen Hellectra, seconds after the Championship bracket drawing
At the conclusion of the NC final between the WCR and MNRG All-Stars, eyes went to the tournament’s big screen as Hymen Heaven – the face of the WFTDA’s tournament coverage – drew regions from a hat and populated the tournament bracket. As the regions were drawn, the MNRG realized that they had been paired against Charm City, the team that had soundly beaten them (249-118) in 2010…and with whom they had played to a near-draw only two months before.
The team and their fans hit the afterparty and the downtown sights of Indianapolis, then headed back to Saint Paul for the league’s first home bout.
And more training.
...To be concluded.
More News
Seeing Double Recaplet: Rockits beat Dagger Dolls
February 19, 2012
Rockits 106 - Dagger Dolls 45
Seeing Double: the Preview
February 13, 2012
The MNRG return to the Xcel Energy Centre…this time for a remix of the Dolls/Rockits season finale.
Hook, Line, and Sink Her: Minnesota All-Stars rush past Old Capitol City, 362-58
February 07, 2012
In the Minnesota All-Stars’ opening bout of 2012, Iowa City’s best take on the #2-ranked league in the North. Minnesota welcomes Iowa City with a resounding win.
Hook Line and Sink Her: Miss Quitos nose ahead of Loon-a-Ticks, 96-67
February 06, 2012
The Rockit/Garda Belt superteam come back from a 14-point deficit at the half, takes advantage of penalty trouble by the Atomic Bombshell/Dagger Doll skaters and charges ahead for the win.
Hook Line and Sink Her Recaplet: MNRG takes out Old Capitol, Miss Quitos overcome the Loon-a-Ticks
February 04, 2012
MNRG All-Stars 362 - 58 OCCRG, Miss Quitos 96 - 67 Loon-a-Ticks
