Lose the Battle, Win the War?

Ozzy Zion does some everyone-boosting (Photo by Richard Whittaker)

Call it what it was: A dry run.

Sunday's Texas Rollergirls' flat track roller derby semi-final starred exactly the same match-ups as will fill out August's championship bout. The Hustlers, climbing the ladder from last place in 2008, took on reigning champions the Hotrod Honeys, while the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers and the Hell Marys slogged it out to climb from bottom of the rankings.

It seemed like knowing they had an assured place in the finals took a little pressure off the Hustlers. That said, with go-to jammers Das-it and Barbarella sidelined, they needed to boost their scoring line. So there were some unexpected helmets sporting the jammer's star, like Booty Queen and Bullet Tooth Tracy, and the welcome return to the jam line of Lady Stardust.

The Hotrods had their own absences, with Morphine still resting up from her broken ankle. But with the form they've have shown this season, it's no surprise that the black-clad champions took the night 84-30.

But this was a dry run. There was a feeling that the Hustlers were probing the Hotrods, searching for chinks in their armor, throwing curve balls. Did they work? On the night, maybe not. After Tracy surprised everyone by not only beating Cat Tastrophe off the line, through the pack, and then taking four points on the first jam of the bout, the momentum stalled. Rice Rocket proved why she's a legend in the sport by racking up 14 points in the second jam, and the Hustlers lagged from that moment on. After Curvette earned four points in the fourth jam, they were stuck on 8 well into the second period, as the Hotrods skipped ahead by 7, 15, finally 54 points.

The Hustlers weren't going down easily, and the game got physical. Hustler Vanna Whitetrash and Hotrod Vicious Van GoGo competed for most impressive jammer flight into the crowd after they both wiped out from some serious blocking. Then Crackerjack and Curvette both got ejected (Crackerjack laughed off her ejection, saying that if people don't want their arms bitten, don't put them near her mouth).

There was a late Hustler rally, with Fearlys breaking the scoreless run, and then both Tracy and Booty Queen getting grand slams. The crew in silver and purple even pulled off the ol' switcheroo, with Molotov M. Pale handing the star off to Tracy for five points. But it wasn't enough to take the night: Now the Hustlers just have to work out if they learned enough to take the title.

For the Hell Marys versus the Heartbreakers, the stakes were high, and they got higher for the gingham cowgirls when Hog Wild took a serious tumble, bad enough to mean a trip to the hospital. It's that kind of sobering moment that can take the heart out of a team, but the Heartbreakers kept rolling.

The first jam didn't auger so well for them: Even though it was Heartbreaker Yellow Die as lead jammer, The Angie-Christ snuck through to give the Marys a single point advantage, 1-2. But that was the last time they held the lead. Ruby Wring blew through the full pack twice, leaving the Heartbreakers leading 12-1 and in charge for the rest of the bout.

The Hustlers weren't the only team experimenting: Pushing Kat. A. Killzem into the Marys' regular jamming rotation was bold and often paid off by locking the Heartbreakers down. But they depended on a defensive pack that couldn't prevent some big-scoring runs, and couldn't help their jammer enough to claw back some points for much of the first half.

A final spurt put them up the midway point lagging 40-23, but then the defensive approach took a grip. For nine jams, the Heartbreakers could only muster five points. The Marys did better, but since they were lagging 53-27 at the start of that slog, and only crept up to 58-35 by its end, it wasn't going to close the gap. The Heartbreakers broke through the impasse to finish the night 73-35, and head into the August finals with a potential edge for the rematch.