Right out of the gates, both teams’ blockers were mangling the jammers as they burned through the pack.  The physical play was tough, landing Fury jammer Kola Loka in the penalty box for a major blocking to the back penalty in the first jam.  Double Crossers blocker Georgia on Yer Behind and The Fury’s Sargentina were landing monolithic hits with extreme prejudice and had no issues controlling the pack.  Kola Loka came out of the box and exploded through her scoring pass to give the Fury and early 5-0 lead.

Hitting and scoring was back and forth early on in the first half.  Both teams were creating amazing opportunities for their jammers.  The Fury was stacking Red Zeppelin, T.S. Helliot, ODGG, Take Out Box, Yvette YourMaker and Carnage Wilson against the Double Crosser jammers with excellent success.  While the Double Crossers had the black wall of Georgia on Yer Behind, Norma Lee Wright, and Sassy Squash, which was nearly impregnable, The Fury proved to have a deeper jammer pool and the one-two combination of Kola Loka and Jackie Daniels was a deciding factor in the overall win.  Relying on solid blocking, the Double Crossers were leaning mostly on Indycent and Julia Rosenwinkel to handle the bulk of jammer duties.

The Fury set precedence in the first half with lots of jammer-on-jammer action behind the pack and a mountain of points racked up by Kola Loka, Jackie Daniels and crew.  The Double Crossers were working hard to keep the points pace but couldn’t react to the positional hitting that The Fury was dishing out and the half ended with The Fury up 63-24.

The beatings intensified after halftime and both teams were right back to dishing out serious punishment.  Take Out Box made her jamming debut of the night for The Fury and scored an impressive Grand Slam.  ODGG and Red Zeppelin were handing out hits left and right as Julia Rosenwinkel and Indycent worked their way through the pack.  Ska Face brought her A-Game to the table and scored a Grand Slam after exploding off the line and blowing through the pack unscathed.  Tomy Knockers took the track for the first time ever, and coupled with excellent blocking, scored nine points putting The Fury up 77-27.

Shortly thereafter, Double Crossers jammer Julia Rosenwinkel went down hard after a nerve-racking hit.  A few silent moments passed as she was helped off the track by the medical staff and the referees ended the jam.  The Crossers called on Joanie Utah and Karmageddon to help with jamming and even though The Fury continued to run Kola Loka, Jackie Daniels, Ska Face and Tomy Knockers through the pack, the Crossers started to mount a comeback.

Indycent, Joanie Utah and first-time jammer Dame Over scored impressive, multiple Grand Slams and brought the Crossers to within 16 points with only 2:49 left, and the score was set at 100-84.  With the bout turning into a nail biter, The Fury showed why they are the defending champs and shut down the Crossers point-scoring production.  Kola Loka and Jackie Daniels continued to put points on the board and heads-up blocking by T.S. Helliot and Sargentina held the Crossers at bay.  The Fury kept the lead and beat the Double Crossers 128-84 to extend their winning streak to 7-0.  Kola Loka was named Player of the Game after scoring 55 points for her team.  The Fury take on the Manic Attackers, the last team they lost to back in the 2010 season opener, while the Double Crossers face the Hell’s Belles on Feb. 13 at the UIC Pavilion.

WCR came out from the very beginning forcing Oly to play their game.  Hard hitting and solid pack awareness allowed WCR to control the tempo early on and gave their jammers all the opportunity they needed to score.  In the initial jam, Shocka Conduit cut through the pack, broke out ahead of Oly’s lead jammer 2 Ton Heffer, who had to go to the sin bin on a cutting major, and drew first blood throwing seven points up on the board.

It didn’t take long for Oly to adjust to WCR’s style of play and that’s when the battle began.  No. 2 for the Oly Rollers, Sassy, was working WCR’s Kola Loka over in the second jam allowing plenty of time for 2 Ton Heffer to finish out her sentence and come back out swinging.  Kola Loka netted three points for WCR, but 2 Ton Heffer came through with seven and the early lead gap closed quickly.  The next jam pitted WCR’s Jackie Daniels against Oly’s Atomatrix.  Jackie Daniels broke out first getting lead jammer, but Atomatrix was in tow and the jam became a foot race.  Both girls used their speed to their advantage and at the end of the jam, WCR was up 12-10.

Both teams were leaning hard and heavy on their blocking abilities.  WCR’s Ying O’ Fire, Amy Nonamey, Georgia on Yer Behind, Hoosier Mama, Sargentina and Go-Go Hatchet were showing off their recycling skills throughout the period and giving the Oly jammers a run for their money. WCR’s Varla Vendetta exploded into the seventh jam, cut through the pack like a hot knife through butter, and gave the crowd an electrifying show of speed and agility.  Athena DeCrime, Kola Loka and Jackie Daniels were standouts as well, showing why WCR still had a shot against the second best team in the nation.  Their abilities to push through the pack and zigzag around Oly defenders helped close the gap and bring WCR to within 14 points with just over 13 minutes left in the period.  Though WCR was running and gunning, Oly managed to brave the onslaught of hits, return the favor, and put some numbers up on the board.

Oly blockers D-Bomb, Wheel Her, Sassy, Deadly Aim, Chest NutZ, Blond An’ Bitchen and Harmony Killbruise created a solid wall of baby blue through the course of the period and gave their jammers the opportunity they needed to create a point-spread that would later prove insurmountable.  Oly was adjusting on the fly to WCR’s style of play and serving it back to them in healthy doses.  Tannibal Lector, Atomatrix and Femme Fatale netted six grand slams for Oly during the last five minutes of the first period that contributed greatly to their lead.  WCR tried their hit it and quit it technique, but it just wouldn’t stand up to Oly’s continuous point scoring before the end of the half.  Both teams went into the locker room with Oly ahead 74-31.

Oly made a statement on the first jam of the second period as Atomatrix threw down an impressive 15 points to start the half.  That put Oly up 89-31 and the WCR All-Stars were wondering what to do next.  Athena DeCrime came out in the second jam working hard to break through Oly blocking powerhouses 2 Ton Heffer, Blond An’ Bithchen, Chest NutZ and Licker N Split but couldn’t quite pull the trigger.  She passed the star to Jackie Daniels who broke through the pack like a bullet fired out of a gun.  And though she didn’t put up any numbers for the team, their fluid play and improvisation on the track showed Oly that WCR wasn’t ready to lie down and take a beating.

Varla Vendetta fed Oly a dose of their own medicine netting three grand slams throughout the second period that helped get the crowd involved in the bout.  The chanting was intense and the WCR fans were just as vested in this bout as the skaters.  Second period standout blocker Deb Autry for WCR was taking up massive retail on the track and looked like an 8-foot-tall spider monkey giving the Oly jammers a run for their money and WCR a chance to get back into the game.   A handful of miscues and penalties, though, kept WCR out of the running and excellent blocking and jamming on Oly’s part kept their lead growing.

In the sixth jam of the period, Kola Loka tore out of the penalty box and took a whip from Hoosier Mama, which sent her flying into the back of an Oly blocker and landed her right back in the penalty box.  Oly answered with nine points on the jam and the score was set at 124-40.

Though the Oly jammers were fleet of foot and their blocker walls nigh unpenetrable, the WCR fan base was louder than ever continuing to back their home team heroines and keep them revved up for war.  The ninth jam proved to be a revolving door for jammer penalties.  With 13:49 left in the bout, Jackie Daniels had the track to herself and worked her way through the pack to get lead jam and the crowd on their feet, only to draw her fourth minor and swap sin bin seats with Oly jammer Scara 2 Death, who then drew a cutting the track major and swapped back out with Daniels.  She fought her way through a salvo of hits from Deadly Aim, Femme Fatale and D-Bomb and kept WCR to within 100 points with a score of 147-52.

Oly kept the grand slam machine moving with Licker N Split and Blond An’ Bitchen both scoring one apiece in the 12th and 13th jams respectively.  And though Kola Loka, Varla Vendetta and Jackie Daniels were showing jump even into the waning minutes of the bout, it wasn’t enough to mount the points needed to put Oly to bed for the night.  The final score of the bout was 178-76 Oly, though WCR did a much better job of keeping the pace and the score closer than their last meeting in October.  Oly went on to lose by a mere point to the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in the final on the last day of Uproar on the Lakeshore, breaking their WFTDA gold two years in a row winning streak.  Next year will serve to show if RMRG has begun their own winning streak.

From the very beginning, Windy City proved to control the track and foster unlimited support from the crowd. Crowd noise was non-stop and the deep jammer pool Windy City possesses proved to be a deciding force in getting lead jammer 12 out of the 19 jams in the first half. Windy City blocking powerhouses Varla Vendetta, Hoosier Mama, Sargentina, Amy Nonamey and Go-Go Hatchet worked in concert with their jammers and gave the fans their money’s worth throughout the entire bout.

Texas proved why they are #1 in the South Central Region and didn’t take Windy City’s run-away scoring lying down. Behind solid blocking from Belle Starr and Luce Bandit, Texas jammers Olivia Shootin’ John, Luce Bandit, Sarah Hipel and Bloody Mary chipped away at the Windy City lead and pulled to within 17 points before the end of the half. The score when both teams went to the locker room was 58-32 in favor of Windy City.

Texas came into the second half poised to pull off a win, pulling lead jammer 12 of 21 jams and narrowing the gap in the score. Olivia Shootin’ John and Bloody Mary were making every attempt to put a notch on the scoreboard, but Texas was held short. Second half standouts Deb Autry and Georgia on Yer Behind added a much-needed second echelon attack to the Windy City blocking crew. With about eight minutes left in the bout, Windy City turned the heat up and pulled together to hold the Texecutioners at bay.

Every player from the Windy City team was firing on all pistons and though they were cycling regularly through the penalty box in the second half, they pulled out a win in the end. Proof is in the pudding now to the other top ten teams on the DNN Power Rankings that Windy City is a force to be reckoned with for the Uproar on the Lakeshore championship tournament. Texas fought tooth and nail but lost to a team that was switched on and amped up for the win. Team Captain Beth Amphetamine won player of the game helping her team to climb back into the DNN top ten.

The Windy City Rollers All-Stars will be on the road next month against DNN # 7 Rose City and DNN #2 Oly playing a lead-up against some top ranked WFTDA teams as a precursor to the Championship in November.

Sports Illustrated

Chicago Fan’s Guide

The crowds at these roller derby events are not overly large, but what they lack in capacity, they more than make up for in fervor. Many paint their faces or wear skull masks in support of their favorite teams. Players are accessible for autographs before and after matches, but be aware that many stay in character.

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 Gapers Block

There Can Only Be One (2010 Champ, That Is)

This year's batch of Rollers came back from the last season leaner and meaner than ever before; the league as a whole upped the ante, practicing harder, smarter, and more often, and it definitely shows.

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 Chicago Now

Windy City Rollers Rock the House!

You still have time to catch the Windy City Rollers, as they'll host their Home Season Championship on June 5th as they battle for the Ivy Cup.  Tix can be purchased online for $20 and if you want to really get up and close you can get track tix for $35.

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The two teams spent the first 14 minutes in a defensive war, with the Fury setting the tone early. In the fifth jam, Sargentina put consecutive big hits on Crossers Donna Party and Sassy Squash; when Ska Face was sent to the box on a major, with help from Jackie Daniels and Go-Go Hatchet, Sargentina orchestrated a fierce penalty kill on Party’s powerjam. She would finish the game with an eye-popping 30 offensive/defensive actions and be just the second blocker this season to win HOWCOOL.COM Player-of-the-Game honors.

The Fury gave the Crossers a bit of their own medicine, winning the slow-down game that the Crossers used to grind down the Manics in February. The two teams started the 11th jam with the Crossers up just 12-9. Loka finally broke it open with a nine point jam against full-strength blocking, and teammate Ska Face followed with two grand slams in the 12th. Indy Cent picked up nine of her 23 points in the 14th, and two jams later Julia Rosenwinkel stormed out of the box with :55 left in the jam, leaving Adore and Red Zeppelin in her wake on the way to nine points.  Down just 37-33 with 2:15 left in the half, the Fury took lead jam on the last two rounds. Daniels ended the half on what has become her signature in this first WCR season since transferring from Grand Raggedy—the four-point hit-and-quit.

After half-time, despite some inspired play by Crosser blocker Karmageddon and Pivot/Jammer Nina Millimeter, the game never felt close. The Fury built a 34-point lead midway through the second half by controlling the pack; Hatchet, Adore, and Sargentina engineered walls of white up front, and Fury jammers Loka and Daniels played physical off the line against the Crossers’ leading scorer, Julia Rosenwinkel. The Crosser Captain, who seemed to wring just about everything possible from her injury-plagued team this season, went pointless on four of her last six jams against withering defense. Loka doubled Rosenwinkel in points, 41-19 to lead all WCR jammers at the end of the season with 273 points.

The Fury—with six top-shelf All-Stars on the roster—simply out-muscled the Crossers down the stretch and won pulling away. In a respectful gesture to players who saw little game play all year, Rosenwinkel emptied the Crosser bench in the last three jams; Tina Flay, Apple Hackintosh, Abbey, and Joanie Utah got a chance to absorb some hits from the Fury, who never let off the gas.

These two teams will line up for the third time this season and all the marbles on Championship Saturday, June 5^th. Think this one is all sewn up?  Just ask the Manic Attackers, who needed every second of their game to squeak past the winless Hell’s Belles on Saturday. In roller derby, anything can happen and probably will. See you there.

Metromix

Windy City Rollers

The Manic Attackers take on Hell’s Belles, and the Double Crossers face the Fury at this professional women’s roller derby league competition. The Revelettes go-go troupe performs. Doors open at 5 p.m. The first 300 attendees receive a keychain.

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Peter Coffinail

Tour de Pain: A Stroll Through the Roller Derby Community

Flying around somewhere in the ozone is the thought that women’s sports isn’t going to play second fiddle to a man’s world any more... In the capable hands of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association or WFTDA, Roller Derby in the United States is on the rise and fulfilling the role as a validated women’s sport.

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ChiIL Mama

Windy City Rollers Fun: Sagezilla and Du-Jay Go VIP for May Day

The kids had fun with the masked manic, and Mya Ssault still gamely smiled and posed for pixs after getting smashed in the face.

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photo by Gil Leora

UPDATED! The Fury stormed into Chicago’s UIC Pavilion on Saturday night aboard a 3-game winning streak. The orange crush devastated Hell’s Belles by 97 in February, jumping past 100 points in the third jam of the second half, and conventional wisdom expected the Belles to collapse like a Louisiana levee in this game, too.   But Belle captains Shocka Conduit and Hermione Danger changed up the game plan; 6 of the least experienced Belles who dressed for the game played in a minimal amount of jams, and the Belles came at the Fury hard with 3 jammers in heavy rotation.   The teams’ two veteran captains squared off in the game’s last jam with the Belles well within striking distance, but when it was over the Fury had iced a 125-110 win and a place in the Ivy King Cup championship game on June 5th. 

 Danger--playing her first game since an injury sidelined her for the April bout--took advantage of a major penalty on the Fury jammer in the third, pushing the Belles to their biggest lead of the season, 21-0. Fury jammers took the next four lead jams, however, including Kola Loka’s ten-point run in the seventh.  After that, Conduit, Danger, and second-year stand-out Deb Autry jammed exclusively for the Belles, and the three of them kept team red in it until the last jam of the half.  With just 30 seconds left, and up by just 12, Tori Adore and Ivy Sedation  held up Danger, allowing Fury jammer Ska Face to bolt around the outside and into the lead. The Belles were caught in perhaps the biggest pack mismatch of the game, and when Danger was sent off for cutting the track, Ska Face cut up Belle blocking for 15 points to put the Fury up 69-45 at the half. 

 Kids from School of Rock, Chicago, took over jamming at halftime, rocking an appreciative crowd with early MTV hits. As one astute observer pointed out, it may have been the first time in roller derby history that Mötley Crüe and Skid Row have been heard back-to-back at a bout. School of Rock played several sets with varying line-ups, prompting really painful-looking air guitar from some, uh, well-meaning skaters.

 Hell’s Belles put up 10 points in the first two jams of the second half, and the two teams traded punches until two huge jams on either side of an Official time out.  Loka scored 20 of her 68 total in the seventh as Sonya Mouthshut, Dee Monica, and Tori Adore opened big splits.  Then in the eighth, with the Fury penalty box packed full, Deb Autry put up 17 of her 42, cutting the Fury lead to 22.  Autry benefitted from Fury penalties on her two biggest jams by scoring 2 ghosts points in each.
 
The Belles fell into penalty trouble midway through the second half; Ska, Loka, and Jackie Daniels sliced and diced their way to a 115-73 lead with 14 minutes left. Shocka Conduit rallied the Belles with a 20-point twelfth that may have been the most interesting jam of the night. Ska Face was sent off for cutting the track, but missed the box twice, extending the Belle advantage. Conduit put a highlight reel move on Ivy Sedation and then coaxed Take-Out Box outside the engagement zone before allowing her a hit, leaching another major out of the Fury. The two teams scored just 16 points over the next 8 minutes. With Pominatrix, Bloody Elle, and Mya Ssault playing over their heads in the pack, the Belles scored 12 of those and might have had more save stout defensive play from the Fury’s Adore, Sedation, and Sargentina, who the fans voted blocker of the game. Those three, along with Dee Monica and Mouthshut, picked up for three Fury veterans who did not dress for the game—Go-Go Hatchet, Juana Rumbel, and Red Zeppelin.

 Down 12 with 55 seconds to go, the Belles looked like believers; their pack was at full strength.  Conduit, with 3 minors, called her own number to jam against Loka for the game. When Conduit cut the track in an effort to take lead jam, Loka floated around behind the pack, killing the game clock and much of the jam clock, forcing Conduit to exit the box and race up behind her before calling it. 

 This was the game Belles fans had been waiting for. In the last minute a roster full of rookies, many of whom sacrificed precious playing time for the chance to see the team within striking distance at the end, sat on the edge of their seats with All-Star on All-Star for the win. But as has been the case so often this season, there was just too much Kola Loka, who walked away with HOWCOOL.COM Player-of-the-Game honors. 

 The Fury will finish the regular season on May 22nd against the Double Crossers in a preview of the Ivy King Cup Championship game. The Belles, likely feeling closer than they have all year to their first win, will close the season against the Manic Attackers.

photo by Gil Leora

UPDATED! 

This past bout marked the beginning of the second half of the Windy City Rollers home-league season. The Fury lined up against the Manic Attackers at the UIC Pavilion looking to avenge an opening-day loss in which Ruth Enasia ran wild. Since January, however, The Fury has risen like a supercell on a hot Kansas afternoon, and when it was all over, the Fury had all but blown out dreams of a Manic return to the championship, 110-85.

 The Manics looked like they might give the Fury a game, jumping out to a quick 8-point lead after two jams and sustaining at least a ten-point advantage across much of the first fifteen minutes. Beth Amphetamine leveraged a penalty on Go-Go Hatchet in the sixth jam and split Tori Adore and Sonya Mouthshut on her way to seven points. In the eleventh, she put up 8 more when Jackie Daniels was sent off for cutting the track. 
 
Unable to spring the dangerous Kola Loka early on, the Fury lined up for the fourteenth jam down two skaters and looking for a spark. It came in the form of a fifteen-point jam by Ska Face, who was able to exploit a cutting the track major on Beth Amphetamine. The Fury seized momentum, mounting a 36-0 run over a seven-minute span late in the half behind superior offensive blocking led by Tori Adore. The Fury finished the game with five players in double-digit offensive actions. Most impressive might have been third-year player Ivy Sedation, who made the most of her 9 jams with eleven assists. Hatchet, Sargentina, and Red Zeppelin repeatedly slammed the door on Manic jammers before the lightning bolts gave the star to Amy Nonamey for first time this season; she too failed to score.

The Manics seemed to get untracked in the seventeenth. Di Richmond, who anchored Manic defense all night along with pivot Rose Feratu, held up Ska Face, allowing Enasia to pick up lead jammer. Wreck N Shrew laminated Jackie Daniels and Mo Vengeance supplied a well-practiced whip to propel Enasia to two of the jam’s six points. The two teams went to the locker rooms with the Fury up 59-39.

 Fans seemed to find the half-time circus act as enjoyable as the unfolding bout. Macha--a remarkably durable pair of young women who might just as well be called “Who Needs Weights?”--cleaned and jerked each other for several minutes to an appreciative crowd. As one skater put it afterward, “Doing lunges is hard enough without some girl crawling up your back.”

 The two teams traded penalty trouble early in the second half, and while the Fury didn’t look particularly explosive, they held the Manics scoreless on 8 of the first twelve jams to generate a thirty-nine point lead with 11:35 left in the game. Ska Face rang up another ten in the fourteenth jam, slipping around Beth Amphetamine for the final points. Amphetamine played valiantly in this game as a blocker, and Ruth Enasia scored 14 of her 34 total on the next to last jam of the game, leaving the final score closer than second-half play indicated. 

 The Fury are now tied at 3-1 with the Double Crossers at the top of the standings. The Fury look to increase their all important points-for total in a tune-up against the winless Hell’s Belles on May 1st before facing the Crossers on May 22nd. Interleague-transfer jammers Ska Face (45) and the remarkably fluid Jackie Daniels (25) have partnered with Fury veteran Kola Loka (35) to form an awesome threesome; the three scored 105 of the Fury’s 110 points. Ska Face collected HOWCOOL.COM Player of the Game Honors and sounded at game’s end like the Fury intends to keep pushing their three-game winning streak. The announcer, Mouthpiece, asked her if the team would go all the way to the championship. “It’s already done,” she said.

Univision

Lánzate a jugar Roller Derby

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Stockyard

Talk Derby to Me

These ruthless rollers, these terminators in tutus, achieved the fiercest display of athletic prowess in booty shorts and fishnets that I have ever witnessed... There is not the slightest hint of jade coloring the skaters, quite unlike their professional athletic counterparts. Such commitment in the absence of pay can only be attributed to a fierce love of the sport.

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Make it Better

Windy City Rollers Makes a Great Girlfriends' Night Out

Looking for a break from wine tastings and book club get-togethers? Feed your wild side with a trip downtown to watch a few of your North Shore neighbors on wheels with the Windy City Rollers.

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In the early going on Sunday night at the UIC Pavilion, The Fury looked like it might hang more points on the overmatched Hell’s Belles than the Double Crossers did in January. The old coaching axiom proved out, however—a young team grows most between the first and second games. No doubt the Belles lost big, 162-65, but the Red Rookies are skating in the right direction heading toward the mid-point of the season.

The Belles spent the night trying to adjust to Orange speed. Fury ace Kola Loka, something like the Wayne Gretzky of roller derby, lapped the Belles three times on the first jam before Belle captain Shocka Conduit could threaten the back of the pack. The Belles started the third jam down 18-0, and when Hermione Danger was sent off for a cutting-the-track major, Conduit tried to slow things down. But rookie Belle blockers had trouble moving laterally at the slow pace, and Jackie Daniels quickly rang up another 15 for the Fury.

Down 33-0, at the start of the fourth, February poster girl Zombea Arthur, who was brutalized by the Crossers in January, shook loose on the first of her four lead jams to pick up the opening Belle points. The Belles rallied again near the middle of the first half, scoring 28 on four consecutive lead jams. In the tenth, a major penalty on Fury blocker Tori Adore and a fourth minor on her teammate Juana Rumbel gave Deb Autry an easy line to lead jammer status; Pominatrix and Mya Ssault pestered Red Zeppelin  into her fourth minor, and Conduit picked up her 14th point of the jam on a slick move that left Jackie Daniels blocking air. Autry pulled the Belles within 18 on a third consecutive power jam in the twelfth.

Enter Loka. The Belles had no answer for number 911, who would go on to put up 57 points on 12 jams that yielded just six Belle points. Interleague transfer players Daniels (44) and Ska Face (41) accounted for most of the Fury’s other points. Zeppelin, Go-Go Hatchet, and Tori Adore doled out the bruises for The Fury, with a noticeably improved Ivy Sedation pitching in on defense.

With the score 75-39, and Conduit looking capable of exploiting seams in the Fury defense, it still looked like a game at the start of the second half. The Fury went on a 37-0 run across the first five jams, however, and simply racked points, yeoman-like, to the final whistle. Each team gave fans reason to stick around; Daniels and Loka combined on a star pass in the thirteenth jam, the latter going on defense for perhaps the only time of the night to hold up Pominatrix. The feisty Belles never quit.  Danger bounced up after being leveled by Zeppelin to score two grand slams in the ninth jam. And Arthur—using nifty footwork, speed changes, and upper-body fakes to offset her diminutive stature—seemed to show measureable progress with each jam. Overall, the Belles demonstrated much better team play in the pack. Ssault, who is stepping into an anchor role on defense, registered 14 defensive actions, looking particularly strong when playing alongside Pominatrix and veteran Gotham transfer Dinah Party, who played just one jam in the second half before leaving with a sore back.

The winless Hell’s Belles line up in March against the Manic Attackers. Perennial doormats in the Cicero years before winning the Ivy King Cup in 2009, the Manics are 1-1 and searching their roster for a fourth jammer. The Belles are hanging loose and hanging together. Both teams want to take a win into the season’s second half.