The Gainesville Roller Rebels will be gearing up for their next roller racing match this weekend, and students are invited to watch as they compete against the North Carolina-based Blue Ridge Rollergirls.
The match will be hosted at 7:30 p.m. Saturday by Skate Station Funworks, located at 1311 NW 76th Blvd. Advanced tickets cost $8 and can be purchased online at BrownPaperTickets.com, in person at the roller rink, or at Sweet Dreams Ice Cream or Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate.
Tickets will be $12 at the door.
The group plans to make up for the loss it suffered in July by the Blue Ridge Rollergirls during Saturday’s derby.
Co-captain and training committee member Kristen “Krispy-Kreme” Duffield said she makes sure practices are focused toward Saturday’s competition.
“When we played Blue Ridge in July, we lost a tough game but learned a lot from it,” Duffield said. “Now we have worked on what didn’t go well for us during that bout.”
The match consists of two teams of five girls each who skate counterclockwise on a flat track. One player is a “jammer,” who scores points by passing the women on the opposite team while her teammates block, said Roller Rebels member Adrienne “Rage-Rienne” Fagan.
The Gainesville Roller Rebels, founded in 2007, are in a testing period to see if it can get access to regional and national tournaments.
“I never played sports in my life but discovered, if I showed up and tried hard, I could improve on my speed or my life or knock down grizzly madams,” Fagan said. “All these things you thought you could never do, you find out they’re actually not that crazy.”
