Coach Hiya suddenly remembered something: "As for the setter position, there's a quite exceptional prospect in this year's Tokyo Interhigh Junior High, someone who leads in every aspect and carries the style of Iizuna from back then."
I heard they're interested in recruiting him directly from the junior high level. After all, that age group hasn't produced any good prospects for several years.
Too many people only start to show their talent in high school, so there are rarely any mature players in the junior high level.
"Whose?" Coach Unabara blanked for a moment.
He is currently managing matters for the youth team; because the conversion rate of players from the junior high team to the adult team has been too low lately, he hasn't paid attention to them for a long time.
Coach Hiya replied, "It's Itachiyama's own, called Ningshaqing."
"As expected of a prestigious school.." The Publicity Club member, who had been listening nearby, raised a hand and scratched his head.
It seems like players from Itachiyama pop up everywhere.. in his memory, it seems like there's always an Itachiyama graduate among the Olympic representatives every year.
Oh right, there are also players from Inarizaki.
Hearing so much good news, Unabara Uta became even more excited: "I'm really looking forward to it, summer."
Chapter 300: The Three Hundredth Fox
It's still a mediocre serve.
Watching Hinata's serve, Kumoita gave a chuckle, completely unsurprised by it.
And, as expected, Hinata's service turn was interrupted by Municipal Kobe after a single play; Kito sent over a Second Attack that clipped the net and dropped, the Inarizaki side failed to save it.
Oikawa Tooru sat in the stands with his arms crossed, a similar expression on his face. "I rarely use the word 'disgusting' to describe Inarizaki's opponents, really."
Handling front-row balls this frequently could be described as a form of mental torture.
If Inarizaki's setter wasn't Miya Atsumu, the team's offense would have collapsed long ago due to errors in both the front and back rows from being able to toss even such net-touch balls.
Wakamura said with a look of immense pride, "Thanks for the compliment, my junior is just that excellent."
Glancing at the lens in his hand, Nagumo fell into silence.
Even though they were cheap items bought from a nearby department store, this was still going way too far..
So he silently took off his own sunglasses and handed them to Oikawa Tooru. "Please, Oikawa-kun."
Unlike most Men's Volleyball matches, the match between Inarizaki and Municipal Kobe could actually be described as "boring."
Aside from the occasional Quick Attack by Hinata and Miya Osamu, there were rarely even any scenes of aggressive spiking; instead, a large portion of the match consisted of a tactical tug-of-war involving technical plays.
During the technical timeout, Miya Atsumu said irritably while drinking water, "They're hitting the sweet spot perfectly."
Their block height was insufficient, Municipal Kobe's attacking point was also insufficient; they should have had the upper hand, but the opponents completely gave up on facing their block head-on.
Speaking of which.. actually, Inarizaki is the same.
To avoid a head-on confrontation with the block, they choose to use a Quick Attack to disrupt the block and a super-high toss to evade it.
Although it was obvious that Inarizaki's strategy was more effective, that feeling of being tormented was still frustrating and affected the mood.
Hinata approached: "Atsumu-senpai, we can.."
Miya Atsumu raised his hand to suppress his restless heart: "No, we can definitely handle this set if we maintain this rhythm; we'll worry about the rest later."
Anyway, at this stage, Hinata's jumping and running aren't that frequent; he uses Hinata as a decoy very often, most of the time, the main spikers are Miya Osamu and the others.
The opposing block didn't look very smart; their lateral deception was already enough.
Coach Omimi raised his hand to wipe away a tear. "You've grown, Atsumu."
In the past, at this point, Miya Atsumu would have definitely agreed to Hinata's proposal, or even taken the initiative to suggest playing with something new.
But as Miya Atsumu said, with the advantage of the opening, there would be no problem winning this set.
After all, the attacking intensity on Municipal Kobe's side was insufficient, that kind of disruptive play style could be adapted to.
The score progressed steadily for both sides, Inarizaki's advantage remained obvious as they successfully reached set point.
Hanae provided another stable First Receive, Kito followed up immediately.
What a great first receive!
Eyes fixed on the opposing setter's movements, Suna quickly shouted, "Over here!"
By now, Inarizaki's front row formation was already the strongest blocking lineup possible. The three of them blocked Higashiyama, who had just received the ball, so tightly that he was forced to spike it directly into the block, creating a rebound.
Kito shouted, "Rebound! I've got it!"
He moved quickly to follow up, jumping and extending his hand to touch the ball, intercepting it mid-air.
Following the instructions Higashiyama-senpai had just given him, he delivered a toss for a direct, short-distance Quick Attack.
Sakurai Haruto immediately jumped, spiking the ball over the Inarizaki block.
They sent this ball directly on the first touch, its speed was impeccable.
"I've got it!" Ginjima dove forward, sending the ball up.
With the Libero off the court, he is the team's last line of defense.
“Beautiful!” Miya Atsumu, in the front row, gave a shout of praise, preparing for the subsequent toss and offensive organization.
Hinata looked up at the ball, exchanged a glance with Rishia on the other side, decisively stepped back to create some distance before quickly rushing forward.
“Give me the ball!!”
He called for the toss from the setter, his presence incredibly intense.
Hinata's gaze locked onto Kanzaki and Hanae, who were positioned in the back row of Municipal Kobe, preparing for defense.
Actually, in terms of spiking technique alone, he, Kanzaki, Sakusa are quite similar; they are all relatively fast, focusing on the movements of the fingers, palms, wrists.
After all, his physical capabilities are limited, so he cannot rely solely on driving his entire shoulder and arm swing to achieve power like Aran or Ushijima; therefore, his attacks tend to be relatively light and fast.
But that doesn't mean he can't hit those heavy spikes.
After all.. what volleyball player hasn't dreamed of smashing through a block for a powerful score?
Given that the opponent's blocking strength was already insufficient, he could perhaps choose to attempt to break through their blockade with a back-row attack that possessed even greater power and penetration.
This was something he had always wanted to try; after all, he felt that the meat he had eaten over the past few months hadn't gone to waste, his weight hadn't increased for nothing.
His strength had already made significant progress, so..
He can do it!
Hanae's pupils suddenly contracted.
Is this.. a quick attack from the back row?
Actually, in most cases, his judgment regarding the timing of cover attacks for various positions is basically based on the timing of the setter's touch and the spiker's approach rhythm.
In attacks like Kanzaki's, the first step is taken exactly at the moment the setter touches the ball.
But this didn't apply to Inarizaki, because Inarizaki's attacks were far too chaotic.
It wasn't a chaotic mess, but rather a chaos with order.
As an opponent, he could not see the signaling gestures between Miya Atsumu and the front-row Middle Blocker, so he was completely unable to capture the timing of Inarizaki's coordination.
Not to mention players like Hinata, who plays very spontaneously most of the time; if the back row player at this moment is acting like that, Unabara on the other side is surprised, then it definitely wasn't directed by Miya Atsumu.
But.. Miya Atsumu is also a very spontaneous person, he has the skill to back up that freedom.
If he were Miya Atsumu, he would have tossed the ball to Hinata.
But in the very next second, the sound of the hit rang in his ears, with less than a second of difference between the front and back.
Using Hinata's movement to draw attention, Miya Atsumu tossed the ball to Miya Osamu, who was closest to him.
Hanae's eyes widened, his mind was filled with confusion and doubt even as his body instinctively lunged forward.
When did he get there?!
That distance.. was it just blocked by Miya Atsumu's body?
Damn, it's too late.
With a loud bang, the whistle blew. Miya Osamu's line shot hit the line for a score, at that moment, the score jumped to Inarizaki 25:21 Municipal Kobe.
Hinata raised his hand to high-five Miya Osamu. "Great shot, Osamu-senpai!"
Miya Osamu nodded. "Great cover."
Miya Atsumu also leaned in and waved his hand at Hinata.
Hinata froze for a moment, but Miya Osamu had already turned his head and given Miya Atsumu a heavy slap on the shoulder: "Great toss."
Miya Atsumu gave a wry smile. "Nice spike."
Watching on TV, Komori was somewhat bewildered: "Since when did Miya Atsumu start playing so predictably?"
He also thought that Miya Atsumu was preparing to set up a back-row quick attack, but it turned out to be a back quick instead.
Hinata really draws too much attention to himself, so he didn't pay much attention to Miya Osamu.
This feeling.. it's terrible.
Koldorf skillfully applied the newly learned idiom: "When things deviate from the norm, there must be something suspicious afoot."
Inamura nodded in agreement: "When we play against Inarizaki, try not to focus too much on Hinata."
Ignoring them isn't good, paying too much attention isn't good either; they must master this balance flexibly.
Sakusa offered a profound insight: "It might also be reverse thinking."
Komori strongly agreed: "Yeah, Miya Atsumu would do that."
That guy is really thick-skinned.
Actually, Miya Atsumu, who had other thoughts, let out a sneeze, the people surrounding him immediately pulled away.
Miya Osamu raised a finger at him. "You didn't catch a cold, did you!"
Miya Atsumu waved his hands repeatedly. "What are you talking about? Don't jinx me!"
Hinata quickly found an excuse for Miya Atsumu: "Someone must have been talking bad about Atsumu-senpai!"
On the other side of the net, Kanzaki shook his wrist and took a deep breath: ".. My hands are finally warmed up."