UPATED! Not since the Supreme Court sustained the certification of George Bush as winner of Florida's electoral votes in the 2000 election has anyone wanted a “W” so bad. Hell’s Belles came into this game smarting from a close loss to the home-league champion Fury on May 1^st and desperate to avoid a winless season. The Manics, who began defense of their 2009 championship with a decisive win in January over the Fury have been up and down since, and were eliminated from championship contention in early May. Emotion favored the Belles as these two teams rolled onto the floor at the UIC Pavilion last Saturday night.

Shocka Conduit gave the Belles a 14-0 cushion on her first jam, and Pominatrix scored nine in the eighth. In the ninth, Manic sophomore Zoe Trocious cut the lead to 28-19 by taking advantage of two Belles in the penalty box. With a 5-3 advantage at the start of the tenth, Amphetamine seized lead jam and just as quickly cut the track, handing a powerjam to Conduit, who circled for 14.

For the second time in two bouts Hell’s Belles sharply limited playing time for many of their rookies and sold out to a punishing two-jammer rotation. Missing co-captain Hermione Danger, still out with an injury, Conduit and Deb Autry wore the star for 36 of the game’s 44 jams. Key to the strategy, however, was Pominatrix, who jammed tentatively earlier in the year but spelled Conduit and Autry with aggression, speed, and agility. Pominatrix put on a remarkable show of legerdemain in the 12th jam.  She hopped through blocking to take lead, and then executed a deft inside-outside move to register two grand slams with Ruth Enasia in the penalty box. Enasia stormed back on the track with determination, and despite solid blocking by Autry and Mya Ssault—who played 35 solid jams and led both teams with 26 defensive actions—managed to pick up four. Pominatrix finished with 26 points after not jamming at all in the last bout, and led the Belles with 3.71 points-per-jam.

Up by 24 at the start of the 14th jam, the Belles had roused the crowd to synchronized cheers they’d not heard since retirement cut through the team like a killer virus last June. But with four minutes left in the half, the Manics started leaning forward off their heels. A 13-point jam by Amphetamine cut the Belles’ lead to 14 with four minutes left, Enasia added three more in the 19th, and the half ended with Belles up 63-52.

The two teams scored just six points total through the first four jams of the second half before Conduit, in a display of sheer will, racked up nine in the fifth. Di Richmond trapped a rookie Belle blocker in the seventh and Conduit was sent to the box, setting up Amphetamine for a ten-point jam. The Blue Blur was back in this one, averaging 5.0 points-per-jam, leading Manic scorers with 45 points, and hauling in Player-of-the-Game honors.

Smart jamming by Enasia and Trocious allowed the Manics to inch back into the game, and the two teams battled for three consecutive jams with the Belles clinging to a two-point lead. The Belles were gassed, and penalties mounted; Team Red, with 65% of the game’s majors at the end, couldn’t match the clean play that kept them in it late against the Fury earlier in the month.

When Conduit managed to break through the pack in the 22nd jam with two teammates in the box, it looked like the Belles just might pull it off.  With 3:45 left, however, Conduit was sent off for cutting the track, giving Amphetamine a power jam and a 94-91 lead—the Manics first of the game. An official time out ended with Ssault heading to the dressing room on penalties with under two minutes to play and two more Belles in the box. Trocious grabbed four points and called it, and with 35 seconds to go, down by five, Deb Autry lined up against Ruth Enasia for the season’s last jam.

Seconds later, Autry was heading to the box with a fourth minor, and for the second straight bout, the Belle’s bench watched the final second tick off with the opposition on a powerjam. With the game clock at :00, Enasia rang up ten points as the Manic bench encouraged her to pour it on, a decision that will no doubt leave the Belles simmering until the 2011 season begins.

The Manic Attackers finished the season at 3-3 while the Belles cash out at 0-6. Members of both teams will play in the annual Black/White contest, guest-coached by a couple of happy auction winners who will draft players from each team. That game, on June 5^th, will heat up the Pavilion Skatecourt for the showdown between The Fury and the Double Crossers in the Ivy King Cup Championship.