PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- The Malden Green Wave entered Thursday's Bootheel Conference Tournament championship with plans of providing the Campbell's defense with a heavy dose of middle hitter Gracie Thomas.
"Our gameplan coming in was to feed it to Gracie Thomas every time because she scores when she hits," Malden coach Brittany Crane said.
It took a little while for the second-seeded Green Wave to get things going against the top-seeded Camels. Malden found a way to take control, securing its fifth straight Bootheel Conference tournament championship with a 25-21, 25-16 win against Campbell.
Thomas caught fire at the net in the second set as she recorded nine of her 11 kills. Campbell rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to tie things up at 10-10 but never led from then on. Malden followed with a 10-2 run to take a comfortable 20-12 lead on its way to a 25-16 victory in the second set.
"The seniors have played on varsity and won it all four years," Crane said. "I think seniority helped us tonight because these girls have been in this game every year."
Malden finished with 20 kills while Campbell managed 11.
"Their middle hitting was tough to stop tonight," Campbell coach Gentry Vancil said.
"We struggled with that and our passing on serve-receive," Vancil added. "We just couldn't get our offense going as well as we needed to tonight."
It took a little while for the second-seeded Green Wave to get things going as the top-seeded Camels recorded four of its first six points on Malden attack errors to jump out to an early 6-1 lead. Malden found a way to take the first set anyways as it later scored seven straight points to turn a 14-10 deficit into a 17-14 advantage on its way to a first-set victory.
Campbell, which finished a perfect 6-0 in regular season conference play, has the pieces in place to make serious noise in the Missouri Bootheel in upcoming season. The Camels return all but one varsity starter next season.
"We really worked hard this year to win the regular season conference title," Vancil said. "We are young. We graduate one player and start a very young squad so there is a lot to look forward to here."
Both teams turn their attention to preparing for the playoffs following conference play.
Campbell (16-7-5) has one regular season game remaining at Twin Rivers on Oct. 13 before it begins play in Class 1, District 2 at Bernie the following week.
Malden (22-7-1) hosts Holcomb in its final regular season game Oct. 10 before it begins play in Class 2, District 1 at home the following week. The Green Wave remain in search of its first district title in school history despite its recent span of conference titles.
"We need to get our serves in and speed up our offense," Crane said. "To beat Twin Rivers at the end of the season we are going to have to speed things up."