Hinata, who had already stepped back to prepare for back-row defense, lowered his center of gravity: "I'll take it!"
However, Kanzaki's power was far beyond his, he couldn't stabilize it for a moment: "Atsumu-senpai!"
Miya Atsumu-senpai took two quick steps forward. "Nice receive!"
While moving forward, he jumped and sent the ball back with a back set.
The massive back set that spanned the entire net was a sign of the setter's complete trust in the spiker.
The next second, as the Municipal Kobe blockers threw themselves forward with all their might, Miya Osamu, who had already jumped into position, raised his hand and spiked the ball with full force.
It almost perfectly avoided the back row libero's defensive area, smashing precisely into the corner of the opponent's court with a sharp cross.
Inarizaki 16:14 Municipal Kobe.
Nice kill, Osamu!!
While Aran was cheering for Miya Osamu, Miya Atsumu pointed at Miya Osamu and then made a throat-slitting gesture toward him.
You.
We had an agreement.
—I'll squeeze the life out of you.
Miya Osamu raised an eyebrow, slightly tilting his chin up to look down at Miya Atsumu.
—If you've got the guts, then come and try it.
Chapter 172: The 172nd Fox
Listening to Miya Atsumu-senpai behind him preparing to serve a second ball, Hinata's gaze slowly fell upon Hanae Akari on the opposite side.
At this stage, he truly has nothing much he can do, so he must focus his energy on.. observing the opponent's libero's receiving movements.
Akagi-senpai's diving technique is indeed impressive, but for Hinata, aside from the fundamental skills, it is useful.
Komori, whom he has had more contact with, is even less useful as a reference, since his height and wingspan are simply impossible to replicate.
Therefore, he personally preferred watching Yaku's match recordings; now that Hanae's technical level had improved, there was even more for him to learn from.
In the next second, the volleyball, carrying a heavy spin, soared over the net, tracing an arc past the outside of the antenna and smashing into the center of the court.
Hinata and Hanae on the opposite side made their decisions almost simultaneously.
—A side-spin Banana Ball.
If you want to reduce the spin, the first receive must..
After Hanae pinpointed the position of the volleyball, he decisively lowered his stance, spreading his legs wider, while pressing his arms down, he tried to make contact with the ball head-on.
At the same time, his wrist tilted slightly upward, allowing the volleyball to bounce upward on its own after making contact with his arm.
Bam!
The volleyball flew high into the air, landing near the attack line in the front row.
——A perfect first receive.
Hinata took two steps back, preparing to defend against the spike.
He remembered Coach Inubata had said before that the main purpose of the first receive is to reduce the ball's speed and raise its height.
As for handling the spin, it is mostly a byproduct, with more of the details being handled by the setter.
So.. a first receive of this level is already quite perfect.
Leaving his original position, Hinata glanced sideways at Wakamura.
The ball, still spinning, fell from a great height and, the moment it touched Wakamura's fingers, its trajectory was altered, flying toward Position 2 where Matou was located.
This is a perfect example of how to neutralize a spinning ball, which originally had a speed exceeding 110km/h, within two touches.
And after Matou-senpai got hold of the ball, following his habit..
The most likely possibility was that he was attempting a dump to avoid the block.
The next second, the volleyball lightly cleared the block and fell toward the Inarizaki court.
Hinata, who had been waiting patiently for the opportunity, took a step forward and raised his hands to steadily send the ball up: "Atsumu-senpai!"
"Nice receive!" Miya Atsumu shouted.
Hinata, who also realized he had given a good ball, felt a brief moment of excitement, but then immediately began his approach toward Position 4.
After receiving the ball, he must not remain stuck in his current emotions; the only thing he needs to do is continue the subsequent attack.
Jumping off one foot at Position 4, Hinata acted as if he were preparing to perform a Quick Attack.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Miya Osamu had already moved to Position 2 to prepare for an attack, the two of them performed a cross.
The block of Municipal Kobe was broken into two pieces almost instantly.
If either side lets their quick attack go, problems will arise, so the best option is to keep the middle blocker in the center and have the players on both sides move as close as possible to the spiker of the quick attack.
Once the setter makes the pass, the middle blocker can just move over.
The essence of this negative-tempo quick attack is actually the setter following up after observing the opponent's blocking movement.
Unless the timing is perfectly precise, all guesses and predictions are in vain.
But Miya Atsumu's ball didn't go to either of them; instead, he sent it to Suna, who was half a step behind him.
Back Quick.
Matou's pupils contracted, he leaped up almost by reflex.
This playstyle was the specialty of Municipal Kobe, as its most frequent user, he was incredibly familiar with it.
But Suna also plays using the Quick Attack.
Just because he can cover the quick attacks on both sides doesn't mean the others can cover the gap he leaves in the middle.
At the moment before the spike, Suna bent his body to the side and raised his hand, hitting the ball—which was originally intended to be a line spike—toward the opposite corner of the court.
Hanae lunged forward, performing a diving save to send the ball up with one hand: "Wakamura-senpai!"
Wakamura glanced at the Inarizaki members out of the corner of his eye, while Matou had already rushed to half a step behind him.
Hinata made his decision almost instantly.
—Back Quick.
The moment he stepped back to prepare for the receive, Wakamura used one hand to dump the ball.
Hinata, who completely failed to anticipate this situation, was stunned.
On the other side, Akagi reacted very quickly, diving toward the ball at the first possible moment.
But in the end, the ball landed less than five centimeters away from Akagi's fingertips.
Municipal Kobe scores.
"Keep going." Having scored a point, Wakamura looked up and saw Miya Osamu on the opposite side, tilting his head as he watched him.
Perhaps they still had a gap between their offense and defense and Inarizaki's, but thanks to their reaction speed and more tenacious defense, they were still barely able to drag out long rallies.
If Inarizaki makes even the slightest mistake, they will absolutely seize upon it.
Matou walked to the service area, holding the volleyball.
Glancing sideways at the scoreboard, which showed a three-point difference, he let out a soft breath.
To be honest, the chances of winning.. are quite slim.
Inarizaki will not make any overly obvious mistakes, nor is it possible for them to suddenly go crazy and play recklessly on the court.
As long as they continue to play steadily at the current pace, Municipal Kobe will have virtually no chance of a counterattack.
But that didn't mean they were going to give up.
After all, even they possessed their own heavy and unshakeable pride.
At least.. let's fight until the very last moment.
Countless diving saves had already rapidly depleted what was already far from excellent physical stamina through repeated, constant movement.
By this point in the match, the two Municipal Kobe first-years who had been targeted by Inarizaki had both been more or less affected in their performance.
Kanzaki climbed up from the ground again and rushed to the net, preparing for a follow-up attack.
Give me the ball!!
He shouted for the toss, Wakamura sent the ball to him once again.
Watching the volleyball fly toward him, Kanzaki held his breath.
From the moment he took over the Ace position, all the trust from the Setter was placed upon him.
Naturally, the core shifted from Matou-senpai and Tosaka-senpai to him.
But.. being suppressed time and time again, he always wanted to question Wakamura-senpai.
—Is doing this really the right thing?
—Is he worth believing in like this?
But at this moment, he didn't want to think about those things at all anymore.
The best way to prove that he is someone worthy of trust.. is to score.
With intense concentration, Kanzaki spiked the ball toward the only blind spot in Inarizaki's defense visible in his field of vision.
But if he could find this blind spot, the Inarizaki members could naturally find it too.
Miya Osamu covered the ball almost instantly, receiving it with one hand and sending it over the top of Miya Atsumu's head.
Almost at the same time as Miya Atsumu's toss, Hinata took a large stride forward and leaped up at the net with a thud.
It wasn't a quick attack, just a simple.. center high ball that was almost enough to bring one to tears.
The next second, another heavy thud of a footstep rang out as well.
Tosaka and Kanzaki seemed to have sprinted from both sides and lunged forward instantly, blocking the way in front of Hinata.