BLOOMFIELD -- Malden won gold in the Black Division at the SEMO Spike tournament while Bloomfield won gold in the Red Division over the weekend.
To prepare for Thursday's clash of the champions, Malden added an extra player to their back row to help the defense against Bloomfield's three strong attackers. The Green Wave were also down a second team all-district player in Lexi Campbell, who was out with an injury.
The defensive shift didn't have quite the desired outcome as Bloomfield comfortably won 25-12, 25-10 on its home court.
"We normally have two in the back who split. We're pulling off our opposite side hitter to defend the pass and we couldn't transition quick enough on defense to make the plays we needed to make," Malden coach Brittany Crane said. "We know Bloomfield hits a crap ton and that we have to defend that. So we needed three in the back row because they are liable to do anything, and our blocks have been off, so we are trying to adjust to our defense."
The Lady Wildcats had 35 kills against five hitting errors. Bloomfield's three primary attackers, Jewell Chism, Cayla Mayberry and Bailey Below each finished with seven or more kills. Chism led the team with 12 while Below had eight and Mayberry had seven.
The only problems with the performance according to Bloomfield coach Haley Silman were the Lady Wildcats' five serving errors and a lack of communication.
Kayley Roper had 17 digs to lead the defense and Nicole Roper had 25 assists.
Mayberry was nearly unstoppable in the attack with a 78 hitting percentage. Below was at 47 percent and Chism had 39 percent.
Lilly Warrick, who had five kills, also did well with a 31 hitting percentage.
"We didn't really talk a whole lot. Serving was good, passing was good, we did our mechanics well, it was just the communicating would be the one thing to work on," Silman said.
Bloomfield (7-0-2) also missed five serves.
"We worked on serving yesterday and did great. So I don't know," Silman said.
The Malden offense, meanwhile had trouble getting kills past the Bloomfield block. Below and Mayberry both measure 6-foot, give or take an inch. Chism is a half foot shorter but has the best vertical jump on the team.
Makenzie Minniefield was the only Malden player with two kills.
Anna Belcher, Gracie Thomas, Lana Reed, and Lydia Harris each had one.
"It's hard for us to attack with multiple blockers. It is hard for us to change our angles while we are up in the air and we just have to change that we are so predictable, and we're kind of stuck in that zone," Crane said.
Malden (14-3-1) finished with 13 digs as a team, led by Belcher with six.
Bloomfield jumped out to a 5-1 lead to open play, topped off by two kills from Below.
Bloomfield led 12-6 when it started an eight point run.
Below started the run with a kill off the block, then Warrick put one down and the Lady Wildcats added an ace. Below added another block during the run and the bleeding stopped when a Bloomfield attack sailed long.
After trading a few points, Below put down set point for her sixth kill.
Malden took its first and only lead in the opening exchanges of the second set and lost it after a serve went wide, followed by a net violation.
The two errors were the beginning of a seven point Bloomfield run that was polished off by three straight points from Below.
The Green Wave were able to cut Bloomfield's lead to 12-9 after a four point run of their own where Minniefield and Belcher both found kills.
The Lady Wildcats answered with a 13-1 run that ended the game.
The final run of the night featured near pristine attacking from the Lady Wildcats. Malden committed two errors along the way and Bloomfield got kills for its 11 other points.
Chism had five kills during the run, including match point.
"They started picking us up a little bit and then we started to move the ball a little bit ... and they started getting it down," Silman said. "So that was good that they adjusted their hitting to where their defense wasn't."