The Brooklyn Bombshells’ heroic comeback against the Manhattan Mayhem wasn’t enough to secure a win last Saturday at the Abe Stark, in the borough team’s last home game of the Gotham Girls roller derby season.
The Mayhem maintained at least a 20-point lead throughout most of the match, and the halftime score was 69–95. But in the last 15 minutes, the Bombshells exploded, making up the deficit and even taking a brief lead, before losing by a single point, 169–70.
Miss Tea Maven, Bombshell jammer and part of the Gotham Girls All-Stars travel team, credited the Mayhem’s defense.
“It is my job to go through the pack and score points for the team which was so incredibly hard,” she said. “Their walls are some of the hardest walls that I have ever come across.”
It was the closest match she had ever participated in.
“One point! We were so close,” she said. “This is the first game I have played that it was one point.”
The undefeated Mayhem’s win puts the Manhattan team in the championship game. The league’s last regular season game between the Queens of Pain and the Bronx Gridlock will determine who the Mayhem will face.
But winning isn’t everything in roller derby. For most players, it’s all about the fun and friendship. Maven began playing three years ago when her friend convinced her to join a team — but first she had to learn how to skate. Once she did, she was hooked.
“The second I started skating, it felt like I was flying,” she said.
