Just now.. Kuroe Kao completely failed to control that ball.
The ball, still carrying a heavy spin, was sent straight toward Hoshinoya, nearly piercing through the opponent's reach.
In that situation, there was no chance to perform a spike at all.
Miya Atsumu took one last look at Kuroe Kao's fingers, which had unconsciously clenched, before slowly withdrawing his gaze.
He clapped his hands and said to everyone on the court, "Keep playing at this current pace; the opposing side has no chance of making a comeback."
Without realizing it, he had taken over the task of encouraging everyone from Aran.
Although it might have been a side effect of comforting Hinata for himself, it was indeed effective.
Miya Osamu looked at Miya Atsumu expressionlessly: "Don't worry, I'll definitely last longer than you."
Miya Atsumu also wiped the smile from his face: "You'd better be."
Hinata was still jumping around behind the Coach's bench, performing movements to warm up his joints and muscles.
Aran felt tired just watching Hinata: "Shoyo, aren't you going to take a break?"
Even though it was only half a minute, it was better than nothing.
Hinata gave a big thumbs up: "Not at all!"
He felt fantastic right now, he had to maintain this state for as long as possible.
By calling a time-out in this situation, so close to the end of the set, Ichibayashi's goal was to break Inarizaki's current rhythm and dampen their momentum.
This is a common tactic; Coach Kurosu would do the same if he had any extra time-outs left.
The Ichibayashi side was arguing about something, by the time everyone returned to the court, the expressions on Kuroe Kao and Hoshinoya's faces were not looking very good.
Miya Atsumu looked at Miya Osamu: "Perfect, Ichibayashi is having internal conflict now. We'll press our advantage and take them down in one go."
The fact that the most important Ace and Setter are having a conflict is their best opportunity to score!
Hinata froze for a moment. "Doesn't that sound a bit familiar?"
Kuroe Kao, on the other side of the net, said nothing.
Chapter 208: The Two Hundred and Eighth Fox
Taking the ball from the referee's hands at the edge of the court, Miya Atsumu glanced sideways at the scoreboard.
Inarizaki 24:23 Ichibayashi; if they can just get one more point, they will win this set.
Watching Miya Atsumu prepare to serve, Kuroe Kao's expression looked very grim.
The recent time-out wasn't actually something Hoshinoya wanted to do to disrupt Inarizaki's rhythm, because that person simply didn't have the brains for it.
Hoshinoya simply wanted him to leave the court, because Hoshinoya felt his hand injury was severe and he could no longer play.
Glancing sideways at Hoshinoya, Kuroe Kao lowered his eyes and let out a soft sigh.
He was the one who knew the exact condition of his hand, even though it did indeed hurt. It wasn't to the point where he couldn't play at all, though.
Anyway, his bones are definitely fine; the fact that he can move means his ligaments are healthy too. In this situation, painkillers are still very effective.
He only failed to control that last ball because the bandage reduced his finger flexibility, but Hoshinoya became extremely panicked because of it.
In the previous IH preliminaries, Hoshinoya's leg cramps had caused them to lose 2-0 to Double Flower.
And with Shugyoku right there in front of them, it was only natural that Hoshinoya couldn't accept having an injured player remain on the court.
But.. he only has a finger sprain.
It wasn't a severe leg cramp! Nor was it a knee injury!
Hoshinoya let out a dissatisfied click of his tongue.
He knew, of course he knew.
But for a setter, the most important thing is the fingers, in this state, Kuroe Kao must be in a lot of pain.
Hoshinoya grit his teeth hard, the grinding of his teeth making an unpleasant sound.
—Damn it.
It was his fault. If his offensive intensity could have been a bit higher and his scoring ability a bit stronger, he wouldn't have given Inarizaki any chance to counter with a strong attack.
Kuroe Kao wouldn't be injured by Aran's spike, perhaps they could have won this set much earlier..
Miya Atsumu's serve flew over the net and smashed down, Nasu decisively chose to perform a diving save.
As Hoshinoya stepped back to take a running start, he used his peripheral vision to watch Kuroe Kao, who was preparing to dig the ball.
Give me the ball!!
The Ace's voice demanding the ball exploded in his ears, leaving Kuroe Kao momentarily dazed.
Hoshinoya rarely requested the ball like this; normally, he would force Hoshinoya to jump again and again.
Without any hesitation, Kuroe Kao raised his hand and sent the ball over.
The trajectory of this ball was extremely long, but under Kuroe Kao's control, it reached Hoshinoya at an incredibly high speed.
The Inarizaki members followed up with a block, but this time, Hoshinoya did not choose to face the block head-on.
He took advantage of the time difference caused by the Setter's extremely fast delivery during the Inarizaki block, spiked the ball down from the side.
The fact that it wasn't a direct spike meant Hinata lost the chance to commit his whole body to a forearm pass. In his desperation, he could only dive, joining Aran from the other side to save the ball.
The ball landed between the two players, the whistle blew, Ichibayashi scored.
Miya Atsumu, whose service turn was interrupted by that single ball, felt frustrated: "Tsk, this is troublesome."
Losing this point was too frustrating; it directly signaled the start of an endless deuce, they even lost the service turn of their strongest setter.
Fortunately, Ichibayashi won't reach their peak strength anytime soon, so Inarizaki won't give them any chance to score consecutive points.
Watching the score rise bit by bit, Iizuna's expression was serious.
Ichibayashi is unexpectedly tenacious; to think they could drag it out to this point even with their setter being injured..
With this kind of offensive intensity, they would be a rather thorny opponent even for Itachiyama.
Especially since their playstyle can only focus on defense and counter-attacks, unlike Inarizaki, who can suppress through offense.
At least for the time being, whether the Setter is injured or not doesn't have a huge impact on Ichibayashi's overall performance; they might not be without a chance to pull ahead.
But at the same time, if they can't take this set while their condition is still good, I'm afraid things will go downhill for Ichibayashi later..
After all, Ichibayashi's bench wasn't like Inarizaki's, with a setter here and an opposite there.
The battle is intense.
On the sidelines, Coach Unabara looked at the scoreboard, which was already approaching 30.
The Haruko tournament cycle has many matches, with the selection process for the next tournament cycle being put on the agenda, he glances at every single match.
So this was the first time he had the chance to stand by the sidelines for a long time to watch an Inarizaki match.
Watching Aran's spike on the court, Kumoita laughed heartily, "What a beautiful play."
An assistant coach beside him also curled his lips into a smile: "You are in high spirits today."
Kumoita showed no restraint in expressing his fondness for Inarizaki: "Of course. I'm not just looking at this single match, but at our future."
Even looking at the entirety of Haruko, the players of Inarizaki are truly one of a kind.
From the perspective of talent alone, they could even completely overshadow Itachiyama.
The players of Inarizaki do not just possess talent; they have also undergone excellent development and training.
Although it looks chaotic, every single step is actually very clean.
The positioning, the coordination, the technique, the movements themselves all gave off a sense of extreme cleanliness.
It was the most efficient instinctive movement, something that could only be obtained through systematic training.
Many players in the current adult national team were scouted from the V1 League or university leagues, but in reality, it is already a bit late for those looking to go abroad.
Once a technique has become established, it cannot be broken down and rebuilt; certain "unorthodox" elements will always remain.
For the national team, it is not a major problem even if this leads to a high error rate.
But this habit of potentially being overlooked at any time could itself become the greatest obstacle preventing a player from becoming "world-class."
This might not be as obvious in volleyball, but in basketball, this is even more fatal.
No matter how skilled streetball players are, they can never be compared to professional NBA players, let alone the elite ones.
Therefore, Kumoita's policy has always been to identify talent early and invest early.
Including helping Hinata find Coach Washijo, most of the goals were for this purpose.
But..
Kumoita rubbed his chin. "Isn't the change from number 17 a bit too much?"
The assistant coach didn't react in time: "What?"
I'm talking about Inarizaki's number 17," Kumoita said. "I didn't observe the details much the day before yesterday, but seeing him now, he's like a completely different person compared to the National Sports Festival.
This kind of effect cannot be achieved simply by strengthening basic training.
What can be accomplished in three months?
Unlike children, players of this caliber have already developed their own basic habits..
Thinking of this, Kumoita froze for a moment. "No, it really is possible."
The reason it becomes harder to break as you get older is simply due to the accumulation of experience itself.
And he remembered Utsunomiya saying before that Hinata only seemed to start learning volleyball in the second half of his third year of middle school?
It makes sense that he's essentially still in the stage of "copying by rote"; it could be said that breaking it down and relearning it from scratch would be quite easy.
It makes sense that they could achieve this kind of effect.
On the court, Suna and Miya Osamu teamed up to press down on the ball Fujisawa Kafka spiked, Ouji Son dove forward, successfully saving the ball.
Kuroe Kao's follow-up speed was incredibly fast; after rushing in, he jumped and sent the ball toward Hoshinoya.