UPDATED! The Fury's speedy jammers and experienced blockers trounced the Hell's Belles rookie squad by a margin of almost 100 points. However, in their second game of the season, the potential of many new Belles skaters began to shine through, showing promise for their young team.

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.

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