The Denver Roller Dolls finish second in the West Region Playoffs

The Denver Roller Dolls' Mile High Club destroyed the Sacred City Derby Girls 339-86 in quarterfinals and edged out tournament hosts, B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls, on their way to finals at the Women's Flat Track Derby Association's West Region playoffs over the weekend in Richmond, California. They also made the...

By Colin Bane

September 24, 2012

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The Denver Roller Dolls' Mile High Club destroyed the Sacred City Derby Girls 339-86 in quarterfinals and edged out tournament hosts, B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls, on their way to finals at the Women's Flat Track Derby Association's West Region playoffs over the weekend in Richmond, California. They also made the top three cut for the Grits & Glory 2012 WFTDA Championships (which take place November 2-4 in Atlanta) before losing to Olympia, Washington's Oly Rollers, 168-161, in a nail-biting title bout for "best in the West" bragging rights.

The Oly Rollers have long been a dominant force in the West Region, and have now won the West Region playoffs in three of the last four years. The team rolled into this weekend's tournament with a roster stacked full of all-star skaters -- including several with Rocky Mountain Rollergirls roots -- and will be a favorite (along with New York's Gotham Girls, the defending 2011 WFTDA champs) when the action moves to Atlanta in November.

But 168-161 is awfully close, as roller derby scores go, and the teams traded the lead throughout Sunday's bout. A confusing call by the refs in the final minutes didn't help (see the full report at DerbyNewsNetwork.com for the blow-by-blow), but the real takeaway is a positive: the Denver Roller Dolls are headed for the championships for the first time in several years.

Not so for the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, however: The 2010 champs lost to Oly in their first bout of the weekend and ended up in sixth place in the consolation rounds, well outside of the top-three cutoff mark.

WFTDA playoff rounds continue this weekend with the Sugarbush Showdown East Region playoffs, September 28-30 in Burlington, Vermont, and the following weekend, October 5-7, with the Landlocked Lace Up South Central Region playoffs in Lincoln, Nebraska. All of the tournament bouts, including the championships in November, are being webcast at www.WFTDA.tv.

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