Niokuchi stepped toward the edge of the court, dropping to one knee to touch the ball.
Atsumu's serve this time was a heavy spin power jump serve, since Niokuchi hadn't received any of Miya Atsumu's serves before, he failed to receive the ball directly.
Beautiful!
Great hit, Atsumu-senpai!!
“Atsumu-ge is so cool!”
Having beautifully taken the first point of the Second Set, Miya Atsumu raised his hands to accept the cheers from the entire crowd, while simultaneously casting a provocative glance toward Miya Osamu.
—The first ace of this set belongs to me.
Miya Osamu rolled his eyes, having no intention of continuing to deal with this childish brat.
—It's only because Miya Atsumu is the first server.
Niokuchi stood up, the expression on his face quite heavy: "This guy has really started playing without any restraint.."
In the previous set, Miya Atsumu had actually crushed their Libero multiple times with direct attacks, but in this set, he let Sakunami go right from the start and began playing balls that were difficult to receive in every aspect.
After muttering, Niokuchi hurriedly clapped his hands to signal, "No big deal, no big deal. Let's keep going."
He couldn't exactly rush to the other side and physically throw Miya Atsumu off the court; all he could do was deal with whatever came his way.
Miya Atsumu, in a great mood, delivered a second serve that dropped sharply shortly after crossing the net. Fortunately, Nokanawa, being closer to the ball, reacted quickly and received it.
"Great first receive!" Koganezawa rushed to follow the ball, quickly setting it toward Obara.
Facing the three-man block closing in from Inarizaki, Obara forced himself to stabilize his form and took advantage of the gap in Hinata's slightly lower block to execute a dump.
Hinata, having anticipated this, pulled back his strength and turned, using one hand to touch the ball the moment it hit the ground.
He applied active force to the ball, sending it toward a high point near the three-meter line.
“Atsumu-ge!!” Hinata shouted, calling out to Miya Atsumu.
Obara's dump was not a backspin spike, his intention was not hidden at all; Hinata had almost noticed it immediately.
Otherwise, Hinata wouldn't have been able to follow up and handle the ball so perfectly and so quickly.
“Nice play, Shoyo!” Miya Atsumu shouted, stepping forward to follow up at the same time.
Watching his posture as he stepped forward, Niokuchi, who was in the back row preparing to receive the ball, felt a sudden numbness on his scalp.
The movement looked a lot like he was going to spike directly, but in the previous set, Miya Atsumu had already demonstrated his masterful ability to disguise a set as a spike.
With both Hinata and Miya Osamu in an attacking state, he was unable to make a clear judgment.
In the very instant he hesitated, a heavy thud already rang out.
The next second, the volleyball crashed into their side of the court like a meteor.
The players in the front row were still staring at Hinata and the others, Aone and the Nokanawa players didn't even have time to react before the ball had already hit the ground.
A clean, decisive spike, with a ball speed that didn't fall short even when compared to a spiker.
Sakunami Kosuke's Adam's apple bobbed slightly as he swallowed hard.
This is.. the Second Attack of High School's Best Setter.
No, although it was called a Second Attack, in essence, it was no different from a spiker's powerful spike.
Miya Atsumu landed and turned to embrace Hinata, who had rushed toward him.
In a great mood, he grabbed Hinata by the armpits and lifted him up. "Shoyo, that was a great pass!"
Hinata laughed heartily, "Atsumu-ge was amazing too!"
He really did intend to let Miya Atsumu spike it directly just now, which is why he set it so close to the three-meter line.
As expected, he and Atsumu-senpai were perfectly in sync! Their chemistry was a perfect ten!
Niokuchi wiped the sweat that had already trickled down to his chin and exhaled softly. "I knew it. Miya Atsumu is just that kind of vindictive person."
In the last set, Koganezawa's Second Attack scored from Miya Atsumu's set, so he felt at that moment that Miya Atsumu would definitely retaliate.
However, Miya Atsumu played quite conservatively in the last set, his variety of feigned spikes and actual sets were quite beautiful.
Looking at it now.. it's not that there was no retribution, it's just that the time hadn't come yet.
Sakunami Kosuke pursed his lips after losing the ball. He said nothing, merely staring even more intently at the Inarizaki members.
When the seniors looked at him, he simply returned a smile.
It's fine, he will definitely be able to adapt to Inarizaki's level of offensive intensity.
The back of Date Tech.. he will definitely protect it.
Inarizaki's offensive options remain extremely diverse. When Hinata is in the front row, he is at his most flexible; whether he is coordinating with Suna Osamu for a double quick or triple quick, or working with Rishia Heisuke and Ginjima Yui to exploit positional and timing gaps, he is in his element.
“That's truly amazing,” Aoba Haruka remarked with emotion.
Hinata actually remembered so many complex tactical arrangements and movement patterns, he executed every single one of them quite perfectly.
This was not just the posture of a powerful Ace, but also the role of someone acting as a thread, weaving everything together.
Moreover, he noticed that many times, Hinata and the setter did not have any direct communication.
—Have they already simplified their signals into unspoken glances during their usual play?
Rishia Heisuke scored by tooling the block, the service right passed to Hinata.
Shoyo, serve a good one!
The Inarizaki members were cheering for Hinata.
Unlike Coach Kurosu's decision in the previous set to switch the server during Hinata's very first service turn, this time he chose to let Hinata serve himself.
Miya Atsumu's opening serve had already gained sufficient momentum; it might be better to save this kind of server for special circumstances that might arise later, or for when it's absolutely necessary to use him.
Hinata walked to his approach start position while holding the volleyball.
Beach volleyball is different from hardcourt volleyball; because there are relatively fewer players, the service turn simply rotates between two people, so he gets to serve quite often.
He also used the difficult-to-run-on sand to practice his jump serve thoroughly.
From not even being able to jump properly at the very beginning to being able to do it with ease later on, his greatest gain was likely becoming more familiar with the process of "finding gaps in the opponent's defense."
Date Tech did not perform very well in terms of tactical coordination, especially since Koganezawa's fundamental skills were only average, often leading to situations where he was out of sync with the team.
And right now is the perfect time for him to use his serve to target the Setter to achieve his goals.
The target.. is a point just above the net, directly in front of Koganezawa.
Because his jumping height was average when he first started playing beach volleyball, he accidentally discovered the feeling of tooling the block.
Although he hadn't tried it much on an indoor court, there was no better time than now!
Licking his lips, Hinata raised his hand to toss the ball when the serve time limit reached seven seconds.
Coach Kurosu rubbed his chin and said with a hint of regret, "He tossed it too early."
He could tell that Hinata wanted to wait until the very last moment before making the toss.
But compared to Miya Atsumu and the others, who had made timing the serve a part of their very instinct, Hinata was still a bit inexperienced when it came to timing the serve.
With a light sound, Miya Atsumu, who was at the net, suddenly felt a gust of wind rushing toward the back of his head.
The back of his neck tightened, he forced himself to maintain his relatively calm state.
In the next second, the ball lightly hit the top edge of the net near his head.
Miya Atsumu looked up instantly and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The power Hinata put into this ball was quite good; it had no problem clearing the net, it wouldn't fall and hit his head like it did in that widely circulated video.
Koganezawa's reaction speed was quite fast; he reached out to receive it immediately.
During the training matches in the prefecture a while ago, he had been tormented by those two obnoxious, jump float serve middle blockers from Karasuno; he had almost developed a reflex for this kind of net touch.
Hinata's ball didn't land precisely on the top of the net like Yamaguchi's; instead, it slammed into the thick white fabric strip used to seam the net.
Rather than a "net touch," this ball was more like it was sent over through sheer force and spin.
Nice!
Niokuchi quickly followed up, covering the setter's position.
Although his setting skills were not quite proficient, he had no problem giving Fukiage a ball that could be spiked.
Fukiage, having received the ball, used all of his strength to smash the ball down through the gap between Rishia and the pole.
Unabara Uta, who had already swapped positions with Hinata and was waiting there, stepped forward and steadily received the ball.
Atsumu-senpai!
Miya Atsumu also gave a sincere compliment: "Beautiful receive!"
It must be said that since returning from Central Physical Education University, Unabara Uta's decisiveness and aggressiveness in receiving have improved significantly.
The confidence brought about by this allowed Unabara Uta to let loose even more, he delivered excellent receives for every single ball in this match.
As long as the first receive is good enough, there are plenty of follow-up plays he can make.
With a fake motion of a hand raised for a Second Attack, Miya Atsumu quickly passed the ball to Ginjima Yui, who was jumping under Rishia's cover.
Ginjima Yui, whose presence was not particularly high, fully revealed his sharpness as one of Inarizaki's heavy hitters at this moment.
The ball slammed straight down right between Koganezawa and Fukiage, piercing through the block with a heavy spin and spiking into Date Tech's court.
Sakunami Kosuke reacted quickly, sliding in to get under the ball, making the save incredibly close.
"Great play! Follow it!" The Scorekeeper by the sidelines was almost excited enough to stand up, but he still maintained his image as the stabilizing force of Date Tech and didn't act too out of line.
Koganezawa also rushed under the ball on the court, jumping to attempt a back set into the court.
He had seen Miya Atsumu's exquisite back sets more than once, so.. there was absolutely no problem!
Standing by the court, Hoshiumi watched Koganezawa's movements, feeling caught between laughter and tears: "Is this.. right?"
Why doesn't this guy look at the ball at all when doing a back set? Can he really send the ball to the position he wants like this?
As it turned out—it couldn't.
Koganezawa, who wasn't looking at the ball at all and hadn't paid much attention to the spiker's current state, gave Niokuchi a ball that was quite close to the net.
Niokuchi used almost everything he had learned to control his body so that he wouldn't touch the net while spiking.