Janesaw Massacre and Slim Finnegan are getting their wheels lubed and ready for Saturday’s roller derby bout.

In just a couple of days, they’ll be poised with their Femme Fiannas teammates, with one win and one loss so far this season, tying them with the Hellbound Homewreckers (and placing both teams about the Marauding Mollies, with two losses).  The Fiannas can’t wait to toe the line, waiting to bash into a few Trampires and build on the winning momentum that the Femmes enjoyed at the last Dockyard Derby Dames bout.

“We’re very excited about this bout,” Slim says. “We’re coming up on top, and we’re gonna take ‘em down.”

Adding to Slim’s determination, the fact that it’s her birthday on Saturday, “Losing is not an option,” she promises.

But it’s not just the Femme Fiannas who are building momentum: the league itself is going places, with a traveling team, a potential secure home at the Tacoma Soccer Center, and an expensive new addition: “We’re christening the new floor,” Janesaw boasts, talking about the brand spankin’ new, $20,000 addition to the league.

The first bout featured a wobbly, decrepit floor that caused more than a few issues. The wobbles will be worked out for this bout with the help from a sub-floor that Gray’s Lumber gave the Dames a screaming good deal on, as well as the aforementioned new floor.

This bout will be the season’s penultimate bout, with the final bout of the season set for Nov. 3, also at the Soccer Center. “All of us have gotten so much better,” Janesaw explains. “To watch us, it feels professional.”

To build on that professional feeling, the traveling team recently boasted a win over Spokane’s travel team, 124-80.  “We smoked ‘em,” says Slim.  After the Dockyard Derby Dames regular season ends, the traveling team will head south to Portland to bout against the Rose City girls later in November, then on to San Diego in July, where the travel team will square off in a stadium built to hold 2,500 people.

And even after the regular season ends, tryout schedules will remain as they are now, on the third Sundays of every month from 10 a.m. to noon at Parkland’s Skate n Station. “In out off season, we’ll be getting strong, honing our skills, revving up for the next season,” Janesaw tells us, promising, “We’re putting together a structured season.”

For now, feel the heat rise as the Dames set out to prove who’s better, and who’s best, in the semi-championship bout on Saturday.

Go, Saturday.  Feel the RAWR. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler