A heavy thud rang out as Sakunami Kosuke, whose lower body was unstable due to his excessive anxiety, was knocked down directly by the ball, falling to the ground in a rather pathetic manner.
The ball flew diagonally out of the court; Obara tried to chase it down on the other side, but unfortunately, he ultimately failed to reach it.
Miya Atsumu scored with a serve, crushing the opponent's Libero head-on.
The Inarizaki stands erupted in cheers instantly; the speed of such scoring truly makes one's blood boil.
Great serve, Atsumu! One! More! Time!
Hinata clenched his fists secretly. "As expected of Atsumu-ge."
However, they had both already scored two points, while he had no presence at all. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to compete with Miya Atsumu for the MVP at all.
Niokuchi glanced at Sakunami Kosuke with some concern; having failed to receive two consecutive balls.. he was a little afraid that Sakunami's mental state itself might be having issues.
Sakunami Kosuke simply took a deep breath, adjusted his state, immediately stood up to prepare for the subsequent defense.
Noticing the Captain's gaze, he shook his head. "It's fine, I'll receive the next one."
Niokuchi breathed a small sigh of relief. "I'm counting on you."
Miya Atsumu spun the ball in his hands.
Date Tech's first receive was as mediocre as expected, so he would start by taking five points with his serve.
Thinking this, he raised his hand to signal the cheering section behind him to quiet down after the referee blew the whistle.
Just as the entire stadium fell silent, a loud shout echoed through the arena.
Bring it on!!
Sakunami Kosuke stared intently at Miya Atsumu, who was preparing to serve, grit his teeth as he lowered his center of gravity.
Regardless, he would bet that Miya Atsumu would still use a Power Serve to target him, leaving the Jump Float Serve to be handled by Obara-senpai.
Hinata glanced at Sakunami Kosuke, then shifted his gaze back to Aone on the opposite side.
A hint of a smile played on Miya Atsumu's lips, under Sakunami Kosuke's gaze, he raised his hand and tossed the ball up at the very last moment of the service limit.
Of course, he wouldn't miss the detail of his opponent shifting his center of gravity backward. Since the opponent had already exposed a weakness, he wouldn't be shown any mercy.
Sakunami Kosuke watched Miya Atsumu's movement with intense concentration.
The moment Miya Atsumu jumped, he keenly sensed that something was wrong.
There is a clear difference between a Jump Float Serve and a Power Serve; for example, the difference between Kageyama and Yamaguchi's serves from Karasuno is very obvious, he has also tried to compare them.
Right now, Miya Atsumu's jumping motion is different from his previous serve, the timing of his jump is further from the baseline than the last one, so.. there is a high probability that the landing spot will be a Jump Float Serve further forward.
The moment he made the determination, Sakunami Kosuke took a step forward.
And Miya Atsumu spiked the ball almost simultaneously; just as Sakunami Kosuke had suspected, it was a Jump Float Serve.
Seeing that he wouldn't be able to adjust his footing in time, Sakunami Kosuke lunged forward in a decisive dive.
The ball dropped after crossing the three-meter line, but it fell further back than Sakunami Kosuke's judgment had anticipated.
Fortunately, he chose to go for a diving save, the ball ultimately hit him on his back.
After a light thud, the ball bounced straight up.
But without the active force provided by the receiver, a Jump Float Serve cannot gain enough height relying solely on the rebound.
Obara from the back row lunged forward immediately after, using a single-handed punch to send the ball back up.
“Koganezawa!!”
Niokuchi hurriedly called out to the setter, Koganezawa, who was closer to the ball.
Koganezawa stepped forward, chased the ball to the net, leaped, raised his hands to spike the ball with all his might.
Suna and Miya Osamu jumped to block on the opposite side, but a massive force accompanied the ball as it smashed down, hitting Suna's hand directly.
Suna's center of gravity was pulled backward, the block, which should have been pressed downward, lost control at that moment.
The ball bounced up, flying toward the area outside the court behind Date Tech.
Hinata, having the fastest reaction, immediately bent down and dove under the net, attempting to chase the ball.
But the ball was moving extremely fast, Hinata was too far away, so in the end, he simply couldn't reach it.
Inarizaki's block went out of bounds, Date Tech scored.
"YES!!" Koganezawa cheered up immediately.
The long-suppressed cheers from the Date Tech supporters also erupted at this moment, as if announcing the beginning of a counterattack.
Hoshiumi, on the sidelines, complained, "That was a mess."
It felt like a series of coincidences stacking up; if Date Tech had made even one correct move, or if Inarizaki had made even one mistake, this kind of result wouldn't have been possible.
Suna looked at his reddened arms and couldn't help but frown.
On the other side, Miya Osamu, who had also been hit head-on, couldn't help but speak up: "Is this guy a gorilla?"
This strength is a bit too much; this is hardly the behavior of a setter.
Miya Atsumu, whose service turn had been inexplicably interrupted, clicked his tongue. "Miyagi produces nothing but powerhouse, muscular gorilla setters."
One after another, why are they using so much strength?
"Sorry, I couldn't save it." Hinata also walked back and apologized to everyone.
Without even blinking, Miya Atsumu shifted the blame onto Suna: "It's fine, it was Rintaro's fault."
The opposition's offense was so disorganized; if the block couldn't stop the Spiker, it was entirely the Middle Blocker's fault.
Suna didn't say anything either, since his judgment had indeed been wrong.
Watching Aone prepare to serve, the Scorekeeper let out a low sound from the sidelines.
He rested his chin in his hand, his expression very serious.
The Scorekeeper reached out to call Sakunami Kosuke over to take a break, then turned his head to look at Hinata on the opposite side.
Because the distinction between an Opposite and a Wing Spiker is currently unclear in the domestic scene, Hinata and the others are all listed as Wing Spikers in Inarizaki's roster.
Inarizaki's lineup hasn't changed much compared to last year, in all of Inarizaki's previous match records, Hinata has played in the Left Wing, Right Wing, Opposite positions, so he isn't sure exactly where the opponent's positioning will be.
It looks like now.. Inarizaki has actually fixed Hinata in the setter and opposite position.
But because he hadn't yet figured out Inarizaki's positional rotation before this, he used a standard opening.
And this opening directly resulted in Aone being unable to directly match up against the opponent's Ace.
—This was a serious dereliction of duty on his part as a coach.
This error nearly squandered the advantage of their opening serve, making it impossible for the blocking zone to restrict the opponent's Ace.
However, Niokuchi and Koganezawa are also excellent; they will follow up with a block from the back row.. there shouldn't be any major problems.
I've got it!
Facing Aone's serve, Unabara Uta stepped forward, accurately predicting the ball's landing point, used a steady, controlled movement to receive the ball and send it perfectly to Miya Atsumu's head.
Komori, watching from the stands, remarked with emotion, "The progress is immense, this Libero from Inarizaki."
That receive just now was so decisive and the movement was incredibly clean; he clearly wasn't in this state during the preliminaries.
"Yeah." Sakusa nodded.
On the other side, Koldorf rubbed his chin. "But I feel like he's gotten much darker.."
Inamura speculated, "It's probably the sun, wasn't he playing beach volleyball?"
Although Coach Utsunomiya didn't explicitly state exactly what the two from Inarizaki had learned, he did mention that they had played beach volleyball.
Having secured a good ball, Miya Atsumu raised his hands and sent the ball toward Hinata.
This wasn't a Quick Attack, but because of the ball's speed and Hinata's follow-up speed, it was essentially not much different from a Quick Attack.
Niokuchi and Fukiage rushed to close the gap immediately, the Iron Wall formed, looming over Hinata from above.
Hinata's expression remained unchanged, he was extremely calm.
In the moment the block came down, he reached back with a touch, causing the ball to pass through the block at a very narrow angle and smash diagonally into Date Tech's court.
Obara's movement to dive for the back row was a little too slow, he failed to receive the ball.
Did you see that?! It was my Super Short Diagonal!!
Bokuto, sitting in front of the computer, instantly burst into cheers, his entire being reaching a fever pitch of excitement.
Shiratori sat on Shimizu's bed with his knees hugged to his chest, responding weakly, "Ye-yes, I saw it.."
He focused his attention entirely on Shoyo, who was featured in a close-up on the computer screen: "As expected of Shoyo, that was a beautiful play."
"Nice play." Suna turned his head and gave Hinata a high five.
Rishia was also shocked: "That was incredible! That extreme Short Diagonal—"
Miya Atsumu walked over, preparing to high-five Hinata.
But Hinata reached out his hands toward him a step before he could, signaling for him to come and give him a hug.
Atsumu glanced at the Coach who was watching them, ultimately, under Hinata's enthusiastic invitation, "reluctantly" shared a hug with him on the court.
Before parting, he also took the opportunity to ruffle Hinata's hair.
Coach Kurosu's gaze grew even gloomier. "Ahem."
Miya Atsumu pretended nothing had happened and turned back to his position.
Miya Osamu glanced at him and silently walked to the starting point of the serve, clutching the ball.
To prevent Miya Atsumu's cocky face from ruining his life for the next few days, he would deliver a serve even stronger than Miya Atsumu's.
Targeted by the gaze, Sakunami Kosuke shuddered, only after taking several deep breaths was he able to find his rhythm again.
He received this ball quite well; although the ball was somewhat out of control because of the heavy force of Miya Osamu's play, fortunately, the ball was high.
And for Koganezawa, as long as it was high enough, it was a good ball.
Koganezawa shouted, "What a great first receive!"
He raised his hand and sent the ball toward Niokuchi, who had already adjusted his position and jumped below Position 4.
Niokuchi stared at Suna and Shoyo, who had already rushed over, his gaze precisely locking onto Shoyo, who had jumped slightly earlier but hadn't had time to press down yet.