The suppressed Kuroo forcefully slammed the ball back into Inarizaki's court.
With a heavy thud, the volleyball slammed into the floor.
Nekoma scores with a block,
Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue softly. "We got played."
Nekoma had too many little tricks, more than half of them were decoys used to mislead, he had just fallen for their trap.
Quickly pulling himself together, Miya Atsumu reached out and grabbed Hinata: "Did you see Fukunaga's movement just now? That was a classic way of using positioning to deceive the opponent's attacking direction."
Hinata reacted instantly: "Ohhh! The third form of a decoy, right!"
He saw it, he remembered it.
"Very good." Miya Atsumu was very satisfied.
For a moment, the irritation from being blocked directly by Nekoma just now, when Miya Osamu was spiked, subsided significantly.
After successfully interrupting Inarizaki's service turn, the serve passed to Haiba Lev.
As the tallest player on Nekoma, Lev standing there was actually quite intimidating.
However, it is normal for Middle Blockers to not be proficient in receiving and serving; among the players Hinata has encountered so far, only Kuroo is proficient in all of these.
And based on Lev's performance during the few brief rallies from the opening until now, it could be said that his fundamentals are a complete disaster.
Moreover, in the matches over the past two days, Haiba's serve error rate also topped the charts, looking more like he was hitting home runs on the volleyball court.
So theoretically, his serves also pose almost no threat, Inarizaki should be able to handle them with ease.
The whistle blew.
Lev did not wait long either; after all, his attempt to time the serve to the very last second yesterday resulted in a service violation.
Therefore, Kuroo and Yaku had already strictly forbidden him from timing the line; he had to serve promptly once he had adjusted his state.
Feeling ready, Lev tossed the ball into the air in the second.
Hinata, who was playing in the back row to receive the serve for Miya Atsumu, watched Lev's movements cautiously, ready to adjust his position at any moment.
The next second, Lev smacked the ball over with a loud pop.
Yaku stood there in the waiting area, dumbfounded.
This was way too rushed and perfunctory! And that angle—
With a soft thud, the volleyball hit the net.
Yaku's vision went black.
Under Hinata's shocked gaze, the volleyball, bolstered by Haiba's strength, forcefully cleared the net and then dropped toward their side, skimming the net.
Hinata lunged forward almost by instinct, but the ball was simply too close to the net; despite giving it his all, he couldn't touch it.
The volleyball rolled onto the floor, causing the entire gymnasium to fall silent for a moment.
Hoshiumi, who happened to be waiting for the staff to clear the court for the serve, watched the entire thing.
For a moment, he didn't even know where to begin complaining: "What the hell."
Aran looked at Akagi beside him in shock: "Is that how you play volleyball?"
Akagi also expressed shock. "I don't know."
Although they had watched Nekoma's videos, they hadn't realized this tall guy was such an anomaly, but in just the first few plays of the opening, he had sent a series of surprises their way..
That's ridiculous.
Hinata lay on the ground, his mind completely blank.
Over the past few months, he had worked hard on practicing his receiving and defense, yesterday he had repeatedly studied Nekoma's match footage to memorize the opponents' habits.
But now.. he suddenly felt as if all his previous efforts had been in vain.
Who is he? Where is he? What is he playing right now?
Are these all new types of volleyball techniques that he doesn't know about?
Completely unaware, Haiba had already raised his hands and started celebrating: "Kenma! Did you see that! I scored with a serve!"
Yaku-senpai—
Yaku's face was darker than the bottom of a pot: "Shut up, don't you know how poorly you're playing?"
He was practically losing all of Nekoma's face!
Kuroo shrugged.
He felt that Lev might really have no idea, he thought he himself played quite well.
"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it, he was just getting lucky." Miya Atsumu hurriedly pulled Hinata up, who had already begun contemplating his life.
Hinata looked at Miya Atsumu-senpai pitifully: "Atsumu-senpai, was I like this before too?"
This kind of service error scenario.. looks so familiar.
Miya Atsumu decisively denied it: "You don't. You were only a little bad at serving at the beginning; you don't just spike wildly like he does."
Hinata felt somewhat comforted.
Exactly! He only hit Miya Atsumu's back of the head once!
How can there be such frequent attacking errors!
Coach Kurosu reached out to call over Kumagai and Rishia, having the two of them sit down at the coach's bench.
Kumagai glanced sideways at Hinata, suddenly feeling a chill at the back of his head.
After being repeatedly struck by several seniors, Lev's second serve did not result in an error, but it was equally ordinary to the extreme.
After Akagi received the ball, he sent it back to Miya Atsumu.
What a great receive!
Miya Atsumu leaped in place, tossing the ball toward the center where Suna was located after raising his set as high as possible.
Facing Nekoma's double block, Suna used the flexibility of his waist to adjust his spike direction at the first possible moment.
Fukunaga Masahira reacted very quickly, diving to dig the ball.
Currently, the three people in Nekoma's back row are him, Lev, Kenma.
Aside from him, the other two are not suited to receive the ball in this situation.
Therefore, the entire back row was his defensive coverage at this moment.
The volleyball flew toward Nekoma's Position 2, Kenma also took a few steps back.
Hinata's expression was serious.
As everyone knows, Nekoma's precision in receiving is terrifying.
So.. this incredibly obvious mistake is, one hundred percent, a trap.
He will absolutely not fall for it!
Suna, who had originally been worried that Hinata might act impulsively, tilted his head slightly to look at him.
After seeing that Hinata was still observing the opposition very seriously, Suna also withdrew his gaze.
That's right, he absolutely cannot let Nekoma's Setter lead him by the nose.
In a situation where such obvious deceptive traps might exist, the best choice is to give up on observing the setter's movements.
Even the closest Back Quick can essentially be judged by observing the Spiker's movements.
And insufficient offensive intensity is Nekoma's major flaw; as long as they can make contact with the ball or restrict its trajectory, Akagi and Aran in the back row can definitely receive it.
Kenma frowned slightly.
Inarizaki's overly patient state like this.. it's a bit troublesome.
The volleyball flew toward Yamamoto, only then did the Inarizaki blockers move toward it unhurriedly.
Their blocking practiced their follow-up speed more than anything else during regular training, especially the need to keep up even when being pulled out of rhythm by negative-tempo quick attacks from players like Miya Osamu and Hinata.
Therefore, it wasn't very difficult for them to keep up with a straightforward spiker like Yamamoto.
Suna positioned himself directly opposite Yamamoto.
Just as Yamamoto adjusted the angle of his spike to prepare for a line shot, he and Miya Osamu both leaned toward the net at almost the same time.
With a heavy thud, the volleyball was slammed down by the block, crashing into the Nekoma side of the court.
Inarizaki scores on a block.
Miya Osamu looked at Kuroo, who had failed to save the ball and was lying on the ground watching them: "Tit for tat."
The serve successfully transitioned into Hinata's hands.
With Lev setting the standard, Hinata's mediocre jump serve couldn't really be considered an invincible serve.
However, for Yaku, it was still quite insufficient.
Although the setter is currently in the back row, since Nekoma is still using a two-spiker one-libero formation, it is actually difficult to exert any real influence on the setter.
Especially since Yaku proactively sent the first receive higher, giving Kenma enough time to follow up and adjust his position.
"Touch!" Suna successfully touched the ball spiked by Yamamoto Takeo.
Aran, having rotated to the front row for Inarizaki, immediately demonstrated his dominance on the court, delivering a powerful spike that smashed straight through the block of Yamamoto and Kuroo.
The volleyball flew out of bounds, Inarizaki scores.
Great job, Aran, great job!
Kenma glanced sideways at Aran, who was high-fiving and cheering with his teammates, then lowered his head and began to think.
As the brain that receives all the oxygen from Nekoma's blood, what he must do is find a way to carve out a path using the limited resources at his disposal within a limited amount of time.
Inarizaki has more than one strong offensive point.
But Suna tends toward variations in ball trajectory, Hinata tends toward speed and technique, Miya Osamu is more well-rounded, Aran is a pure power player.
With Hinata moving to the back row like this, Inarizaki's Quick Attack will have to take a hit.
Then, at this stage, the hardest person to deal with is Aran.