Although Hanae barely managed to receive it, the absolute offensive strength of Inarizaki's front row, consisting of Suna, Aran, Hinata, still allowed them to beautifully take a point.
The scoring streak was only interrupted by Rishia's second serve, which resulted in a point for Municipal Kobe, but Inarizaki had already gained the advantage once again.
After rotating to the back row, Hinata also began supporting the defense, while Miya Atsumu and Wakamura, who had both rotated to the front row in quick succession, also began frequently using one-two calls to coordinate with the Middle Blocker for a Quick Attack.
But unfortunately, in terms of offensive sharpness, Tosaka was far from being on Suna's level.
"I've got it!" Hanae stepped toward the center once again, receiving a spike from Suna that had been redirected mid-air.
"Nice play!" Wakamura followed up at the same time.
Raising his hands to deliver a back set, Wakamura sent the ball over the net, almost effortlessly, just in front of the spiker on the other side.
The sudden Second Attack left Miya Atsumu and Suna on the other side momentarily stunned.
The moment they reacted, both of them dove toward the ground at the same time in an attempt to save the ball.
Suna's hand reached the ball first, but unfortunately, he didn't manage to hit it very high, given that the ball had very little initial velocity to begin with.
But Miya Atsumu, still on the ground, shouted, "Shoyo!!"
The next second, under the shocked gazes of the Municipal Kobe members, Hinata from the back row took a large stride forward and leaped high into the air with a thud behind the three-meter line.
And Miya Atsumu took advantage of the momentum to fall backward, using his position lying on the ground to raise his hand and send the ball flying.
Bam!
The volleyball suddenly struck Wakamura's hands as he tried to chase it down, before flying high out of bounds.
The cheers from the Inarizaki members erupted instantly: "Nice kill!!"
Atsumu-kun is so cool!
Shoyo—that was amazing—
Miya Atsumu scrambled up from the ground and immediately raised his hand to high-five Hinata Shoyo.
Actually, before he could even say a word, Hinata had already started moving, so the final result was even a Quick Attack.
As expected of him, as expected of Shoyo!
The two of them have incredible chemistry!
Wakamura no longer wanted to use the word "genius" to describe Miya Atsumu, because after all, this guy..
He's not even human! He can give a Quick Attack even while lying down?!
Watching Wakamura's expression contort, Matou on the coach's bench sighed once again.
The point gap was widened by Inarizaki once again; they likely don't have a chance in this set.
Indeed, even if compared only to the National Sports Festival half a month ago, Inarizaki's defense has shown significant improvement.
And with their already weak points being strengthened, they will only become even more invincible.
During Suna's service turn, Kumagai was substituted in by Coach Kurosu.
And it wasn't until this very moment that he finally understood what that phrase, "you can't escape it," actually meant.
—Atsumu-senpai, stop glaring at him!
Perhaps he was a bit distracted, or perhaps it was because the gaze from Miya Atsumu was too intense, but Kumagai had been overexerting himself since the moment he tossed the ball.
A full-power spike with a much faster ball speed than before, yet it resulted in a glorious out-of-bounds.
Fortunately, Kumagai had a lot of momentum, so the Inarizaki cheerleading squad went easy on him.
“Nice serve, Akuma! You'll definitely get it next time!” Hinata cheered for Kumagai.
Kumagai stood still in the waiting area, bowing his head in an attempt to bury himself in a crack in the floor.
Help, why is Atsumu-senpai still glaring at him! He really knows he was wrong!
The service turn quickly passed to Miya Atsumu for the second time.
Atsumu, serve a good one!
In fact, Miya Atsumu, who hadn't scored much through serves in the last three sets, spun the ball in his hands.
Almost the very next second after the referee blew the whistle, he tossed the ball into the air.
Hanae Akari's pupils contracted as he remained on high alert, he suddenly took a step forward the moment Miya Atsumu spiked the ball.
This guy.. is he actually using a full power jump serve approach distance to perform a jump float serve?
Forcing a compression of his approach steps?
As he saw Hanae move, Miya Atsumu let out a soft click of his tongue.
—His reaction was way too fast.
Watching Hanae set the ball up, Wakamura, who had also jumped, exclaimed, "What a great first receive!"
Matou had already rushed a step behind him and jumped, while a bit further back, Kanzaki had also rushed across half the court.
Under Matou's cover, Kanzaki suddenly spiked a ball over the already dropped block into Inarizaki's front court.
Hinata, who was not involved in the block, happened to be positioned right by the three-meter line.
He stared at the ball, lunging forward to slide under it and receive it.
The volleyball flew up, Miya Atsumu's voice followed immediately, "Nice receive!"
After receiving the ball, Hinata took a step back, then took a two-and-a-half-step approach toward the net, leaping up on one foot right under the antenna.
With a loud bang, Hinata spiked the ball.
Hanae poured all his strength into a diving save to try and keep the ball alive, but he still couldn't reach it.
"Nice!" Hinata cheered.
As expected, playing this way could better manipulate the opponent; his experience was indeed correct.
As for where that experience came from.. let's just say that after being targeted for so long, one naturally learns how to play in a way that makes the opponent even more uncomfortable.
Staring at the widening score gap, Matou felt a bit discouraged: "We can't do this anymore."
Thinking rationally, even if Kanzaki had a sudden burst of energy, he wouldn't be able to score consecutive points to bridge the gap during Inarizaki's upcoming dominant phase.
In the finals of the previous National Sports Festival, Fukuda General and Inarizaki were still able to compete because Inarizaki's stamina had been mostly drained by Itachiyama earlier, but the current Inarizaki is clearly still in peak condition.
Sighing once more, Matou couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt in his heart.
—The overall physical fitness of the Inarizaki members is quite good; it's not like they run marathons every day.
Wakamura's mouth twitched. "You give up quite decisively."
He was just about to say a few words of encouragement, but how could someone give up so easily..
Slightly tilting his head toward the people by the sidelines who appeared to be scouts, Matou raised his chin slightly. "Time to do something else."
"Understood," Wakamura replied in a low voice.
The next second, his vigorous voice rang out: "Akari!"
Hanae Akari, who was just about to take a break, suddenly stood up straight: "I'm here!"
Wakamura reached out and patted his back. "Just hold on a little longer."
Hanae Akari was a bit dazed, not knowing what Wakamura-senpai and Matou and the others were actually planning to do: "Senpai?"
Wakamura-senpai pulled Hanae over and said rapidly, "From now on, we'll play around the Libero. You should continue playing normally, but you can try setting the ball."
Hanae Akari looked even more bewildered. "Eh?"
Only when he noticed what Miya Atsumu and Hinata Shoyo were saying to each other did he begin to form a vague suspicion in his heart.
Seeing Hanae about to cry, Wakamura hurriedly spoke up, "No crying! In January, you're going to crush those guys from Inarizaki for me."
Hanae stood at attention again: "Yes! I definitely will!"
What should they do?
It was simply using their remaining time on this day, as winter approached, to pave a steady path for their juniors.
Tosaka felt like she was about to cry: "We're almost losing, we might as well have a good cry about it."
They were about to achieve the feat of not winning a single set against Inarizaki throughout their entire third year of high school, he felt it was quite worth crying about.
Wakamura let out a long breath. "What's there to cry about? You make it sound like this is our last match or something."
After all..
It's not like we're some kind of tragic characters.
Tosaka leaned on her knees and couldn't help but say, "Are we supposed to tell the people from Inarizaki 'I'll definitely be back' every single time?"
Finally, the second-year Higashiyama spoke up to roast his seniors: "Then you'll just end up being the comic relief."
Murata spread five fingers. "No, you have to think about it. The seniors can only call it one more time, but we can call it five more times."
Kanzaki looked at Hanae: "Then can we still shout.."
Counting on her fingers, Kanzaki said, "Nine times!"
Hanae was almost at his wit's end: "Shut up, before graduation.. I will definitely win once."
Yes, that orange-haired guy on the other side.
Before graduation, he will absolutely, absolutely crush him into the ground!
Wakamura gave Hanae a thumbs-up: "Great, you've got real grit. I'm rooting for you."
The score is 16:11 in favor of Inarizaki against Municipal Kobe, the game enters a time-out.
Aran looked up at Kita Shinsuke, who was walking over to hand him a towel. "What is the opposition planning to do?"
Outsiders might not see it clearly, but the Inarizaki members on the other side of the net could distinctly feel that Municipal Kobe's playstyle had undergone a slight change.
The playstyle has shifted from one centered around the setter to one centered around the libero.
The strategic changes in blocking were especially noticeable, shifting from previously ensuring contact to restricting the ball's path as much as possible, allowing it to be passed to the Libero for subsequent processing.
Kita Shinsuke's answer was very calm: "Put more pressure on their Libero."
Unless you are a winner, it is difficult to be the one chosen.
Perhaps it's still a bit short, but at this rate.. the title of the prefecture's best Libero might not go to Akagi this time.