Numbers Recap:
Keweenaw Roller Girls (217) vs. Ypsilanti Vigilantes (225)
Keweenaw Roller Girls (154) vs. East Lansing Roller Derby (146)
Summary:
While this upcoming Saturday, May 5, is our first home game this summer, our season actually kicked off with a set of away games in April. Over the course of one Saturday evening, East Lansing Roller Derby hosted a round robin tournament with KRG and Ann Arbor’s Ypsilanti Vigilantes. It was a tough night with three games back to back: ELRD played the Vigis, the Vigis turned around and played KRG, and we ended with KRG vs. ELRD. The Vigis took home the win in both their games, but KRG put up a helluva fight. Our team captain, Thimbleberry Slam, said:
I went into the weekend knowing the games would be well matched, but wasn’t sure how we’d fair against Ypsilanti Vigilantes since they played strong in Division 1 at the Mitten Kitten last year. We were in Division 2. Looking up at the scoreboard throughout our game I was awestruck that we had held the lead through the length of the game. KRG was on fire and communicating so well. We were where we needed to be when we needed to be there.
In the final game against ELRD, KRG pulled out a win. Again of just 8 points! It was a wild sort of parallel. In both games our blocking walls were strong and our jammers hit the pack with an immense amount of fight.
We had two of our newest league members helping out on the bench. They made sure we had all our helmet panties on straight, kept an eye on who was in the box, and got an up-close-and-personal view of the game that neither had experienced before. Princess Fury reported back:
Going into this weekend I had no idea what to expect, but when players needed breaks and we had people in the penalty box everyone was flexible when it came to lines and communicated extremely well on the bench before getting out onto the track. I think its why we did so well during both bouts.
And Princess Bubblebutt :
Our communication is our biggest strength. It really lets us capitalize on the individual strengths of our players. We demonstrated in these first two games that we have some things to work on, but with our strong foundation, it’s only up from here.
(Editorial note: Hell yeah, we picked up two princesses this year!)
These games taught us a lot. We are settling into set lines for the season, learning (or re-learning!) each others’ blocking quirks, cleaning up our game (seven penalties = ejection, yikes!) and developing a long list of offensive strategies we need to master to make our jammers’ lives happier. We are so grateful to both ELRD and the Vigis for being wonderful opponents and being part of two of the closest, greatest nailbiters we’ve ever experienced.
Can’t wait to see how the rest of the season plays out, and hope to see you join us on Saturday, May 5 as we go up against Alpena’s Shipwreck Alley!
