Bombshells serve up an upset in Rock Springs

The Bittersweet Bombshells showed they are a force to be reckoned with during the Wyoming Roller Derby Cup last weekend in Rock Springs.

The Bombshells pulled an upset early on, defeating the Jackson Hole Juggernots, the third-ranked roller derby team in the state. The Bombshells would finish fourth at the end of the two-day tournament.

The match against Jackson was their second bout in the derby cup and propelled the Bombshells into the semifinals.

“We weren’t expecting to win at all,” Bombshell Cara Kelsey said. “I never really looked at the score because I didn’t want to know, and in the last ten minutes the crowd was freaking out, so I looked at the scoreboard and we were winning.”

Last time the two teams met, Kelsey said the Juggernots stomped the Bombshells, winning by 144 points.

The Bombshells were considered one of the underdogs in the cup, but they’ve proven themselves once again, beating higher ranking teams and advancing to the second day of the tournament.

“We were ranked toward the bottom. We were in the lower bracket, fifth or fourth in the tournament,” Kelsey said. “We did way better than we thought we were going to; we thought we were going to get sixth or seventh place.”

Sunday, they went up against the Cheyenne Capidolls, the top ranked team in the tournament. Although the bout against them resulted in a loss, the Bombshells scored 80 points on the Capidolls.

“Last time we went up against a big team like that we didn’t get many points at all, so we did a lot better this year,” Kelsey said.

The fourth place finish also represents drastic improvement over the team’s 2014 Wyoming Roller Derby Cup appearance, where they placed seventh.

“We didn’t expect it to go that well,” Kelsey said.

Their next home bout is July 18, against Casper’s Deadly Ghost.

“We played them in April. That was our first win of season,” Kelsey said. “I’m pretty sure its going to be a good one.”