Sending the Bootleggers limping...

Its been a heck of a rookie season for me, but the official Dixie Derby season is finally OVER.

What a way to end on a really kickass note too! We headed up the road 10 hours to play the Carolina Rollergirl Bootleggers in Raleigh, NC. This would make twice in just a few months that I visited the Raleigh area. I had just been there a few weeks back for my cousin's wedding and to visit my best friend, so I was really excited that I'd have some cheering support for this game.

We actually went into this bout a little psyched out. Honestly, since CRG is ranked #5 in the east, we knew they were a high caliber team. Due to the travel strains, only 10 of us were able to skate for this bout, so knowing we were playing a fundementally great team also short was a little un-nerving going into it. But sometimes, if you try, you even surprise yourself.

BOA and I left after practice to get a jump on driving, and did a bonzaii run to Carolina straight through the night. The valuable life lesson gained: 2 Full Throttle Energy drinks + 1 NOS Grape energy drink = one seriously wired skater (incidentally, it also = a MAJOR energy drink hangover the next day, but whatever, we made it!). After some quality time with my bestfriend and her family, it was game time on Saturday.

The Carolina Rollergirls play at the historic Dorton Arena. This is probably one of the COOLEST venues I've ever skated in. The floor was unpolished concrete, and fairly grippy, but the best part was the late-setting dusk sun flooding through the windows during our early warm-ups. We arrived at 1:30pm for our 5:20pm bout start time, which felt like an eternity, but it allowed me some time to get my skates cleaned and ready and all the other pre-bout preparations that I didn't get to do while visiting my bestie.

For this bout, I was playing the Middle Out position, which I hadn't ever played in a game before, but I am liking more and more every day. My pack consisted of Blazin' Barbie, Ebbin Flow, myself, and BOA with CU Afterclass as our main jammer. This was one of the best, most cohesive packs I've ever worked with. We really had great communication and teamwork going on, and it felt GREAT to play with those ladies.

We jumped out on the first 2 jams to an early lead, and held strong the whole game. I haven't seen the stats yet for the game, but I know I had a few great jammer takedowns (YAY! My can opener finally was effective!) and only went to the box once the entire game for 4 minors. I did take the jammer line once, and managed a quick 4 points before it was called off, but CU and ChaChee were rocking the jammer line all night with no issues!

The final score was 86-76, with DDG never losing the lead during the bout. For a game we thought we were coming in as severe underdogs, we did excellent! I feel as a group, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves from this bout.

The afterparty was at a bar called Alibi, and of course was a good, crazy time. Who knew Chocolate Demolition was such the showstopper on the dance floor?!? A couple of PBR's later, it was off to bed and homeward bound.

UP NEXT: Guest Skating with the Chattanooga Rollergirls for their debut intraleague expo bout December 12th.

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Raleigh, NC (Carolina Rollergirls) becomes stop #10 on the Derby World Tour.