MALDEN -- The Malden Green Wave entered Wednesday's Class 2 District 1 Tournament championship against the Portageville Bulldogs with a simple strategy -- trust its defense and try to outhit a familiar opponent.
"We went three sets the other two times we met Portageville this year," Malden coach Brittany Crane said. "It's very hard for us to score on Portageville because they hustle so much. We watched game film after game film of us playing them and decided to try to just hit more than them. Our defense is the best it has been since I've been here and I felt like if we would just hit the ball when we needed to we would be successful."
The first set came down to the wire but the strategy eventually paid off as top-seeded Malden outlasted second-seeded Portageville 25-23, 25-14 to claim the Class 2 District 1 title for a second straight season.
"This group of girls works very well together," Crane said. "Our seniors really deserved it this year and they knew they deserved it. They've put in the work and I feel like they've earned this district title."
A closely contested opening set was tied 10 times before Malden scored five unanswered points to build a comfortable 24-17 lead. Portageville responded with the next six points to get as close as 24-23 before Malden outside hitter Nia Walker halted the rally with a kill that ended the first set.
"We knew going in the first set was going to be important for us because we play with a lot of energy and emotion," Portageville coach Barry Branscum said. "We fought hard to come back and gave ourselves a chance. But when you dig that deep of a hole it makes it difficult."
Portageville jumped out to an early 4-2 lead in the second set but Malden followed with the next nine points to move ahead 11-4. Branscum was forced to use both of his second-set timeouts in an attempt to stop Malden's 9-0 spurt.
"I don't usually call timeout that early, but I knew we had an emotional loss in the first set," Branscum said. "I was just trying to not let it get away from us early. We tried to fight back a little bit but Malden is a good team and the ball just didn't go our way tonight, which is the way it happens sometimes."
Portageville cut Malden's lead to 12-8 and 13-9 but never got closer than four the remainder of the second set. The Green Wave scored nine of the final 12 points to take the second set by 11 points.
"I'm disappointed for our players, we couldn't win tonight because I know how hard they work and how much I expect of them," Branscum added. "But I'm certainly not disappointed in their effort and their season. We won 22 games this season, which was not our goal or probably anything we realistically expected at the start of the season. But they enjoyed playing together and that's always valuable."
Malden finished with 22 kills. Portageville had 15 kills.
"We've been trying to get our outside hitters to hit to score and they did tonight," Crane said.
Malden's Gracie Thomas led all hitters with a dozen kills.
Haylie Hammack led Portageville with six kills. Zarria Taylor added five more kills for the Bulldogs.
Portageville graduates five seniors off a squad that finishes with a record of 22-11-2.
"I've coached this group since they were in the fifth grade," Branscum said. "The best thing about this group is they are tremendous students in the classroom and tremendous human beings. They worked really hard for me and had a never-quit mentality. Our program is going to miss them tremendously. Our juniors will have big shoes to fill next season."
Malden (18-6-1) will host Bloomfield (18-16-1) in a first round of the MSHSAA Class 1 state playoffs Saturday. The time of the game has yet to be announced.
"We use our fans as momentum and appreciate all of the support at home," Crane said.
Bloomfield won the first meeting against a short-handed Malden squad 25-17, 25-18 last week.
"The first time we played Bloomfield we were without one of our starting setters," Crane said. "But we are very optimistic we should have our starting six back Saturday when we play Bloomfield."