Of course, such a crude attack could not break through Inarizaki's defense; Ginjima Yui and Rishia Heisuke seized the opportunity and worked together to block the ball back.
Nokanawa dove straight for it, using one hand to cushion the ball: "One more!"
Damn, why does it feel like the tide has suddenly turned?
Why has Date Tech become the side tasked with breaking through the defense?
Nokanawa, who is very skilled at counterattacks, provided a good height and position for this ball, Koganezawa also gave Niokuchi sufficient feedback.
Unlike the previous ball that had left him seeing stars, this one was perfect in terms of height, speed, its distance from the net; it was in a very comfortable position for him.
With sufficient jumping conditions, Niokuchi, who already had the height advantage, successfully cleared Inarizaki's Block.
Fortunately, Ginjima's reaction was incredibly fast; he immediately adjusted his body backward, flattening his palms to make contact with the ball.
Feeling the solid sensation of the touch on his palms, Ginjima shouted immediately, "One touch!"
"Nice touch!" Unabara quickly followed up, stepping in to set the ball.
At the same time, Miya Osamu, who was running toward Position 4 in the front row, suddenly called out for the ball: "Give it to me!"
After pulling back from the Block, Rishia Heisuke also moved back to create enough distance for his approach.
The three members of Date Tech's Block quickly gathered at the net, waiting for Miya Atsumu's set.
Atsumu feigned a forward set, momentarily deceiving Date Tech's block, before instead sending the ball out with a back set.
Koganezawa and Fukiage, having reacted in time, quickly closed in on Inarizaki's Position 4, jumping along with Rishia Heisuke in an attempt to block him.
But at the very moment he was about to reach his peak, Rishia Heisuke suddenly pulled back his momentum and began to descend, while a figure also revealed itself behind him.
In the next instant, the heavy thud of a spike rang in everyone's ears, a moment later, the ball, carrying a bit of backspin, accelerated as it fell toward the area near the three-meter line in Date Tech's front row.
The fastest reactor, Sakunami Kosuke, was far on the other side of the court; in his desperation, he could only push off the ground in an attempt to use a diving save to cover such a terrifying distance in such a short amount of time.
But humans have their limits; even if he were 1.9m tall instead of just a little over 1.6m, he still wouldn't be able to catch up to this ball, which was already accelerating due to gravity.
Sakunami Kosuke's body slid a distance across the floor, but he was still far too late for the ball.
The ball hit the ground with a thud; he failed to save it completely.
He frowned and slammed his hand heavily against the ground in front of him. "Damn it."
He had finally managed to build up a bit of momentum and rhythm, yet he had squandered it so easily..
He was the ground defense behind Date Tech's Iron Wall, his most important responsibility was to protect everyone's back, but right now, he had completely failed to do that.
After a brief moment of daze, Sakunami Kosuke quickly adjusted his mindset and scrambled back up, looking up to say to everyone, "Sorry, that ball was mine."
Niokuchi hurriedly clapped his hands to soothe everyone's emotions: "It's okay, just get the next one back."
Although they looked fine on the surface, he knew that Sakunami Kosuke and Nokanawa were under considerable pressure.
Facing Inarizaki's variety of complex offensive tactics, even Date Tech's prideful Iron Wall seemed somewhat powerless.
Hoshiumi narrowed his eyes by the sidelines. "It's a problem with the back-row spiker, isn't it?"
It is..
On the other side of the court, Aoba Haruka stood with hands on her hips, her gaze locked on Obara.
He admitted that the previous play was indeed sudden enough, but it wasn't impossible to defend.
Moreover, the Libero from further back had already moved up to cover, yet the Wing Spiker behind Position 2 was actually still dazing off.. it really shouldn't have happened.
Obara's mind went completely blank at this moment; he didn't even realize what had just happened until this very second.
Inarizaki's chaotic yet organized offensive pattern left him helpless; he could only follow the training he had practiced to cover the gaps in the block.
But.. Inarizaki's playstyle was still a bit too much to handle.
Hirugami frowned slightly. "As long as Inarizaki gets the opportunity to deliver a sufficiently good set, it's basically impossible to defend against it afterwards."
It's the same for Date Tech, in fact, it's very likely that Karasuno would end up like this when facing them as well.
Even if there are many blockers, there are only three of them, but in the most extreme cases, Inarizaki can even present six different attacking points, including several types of attacks with different rhythms.
Moreover, even if they could keep up and identify who was performing the spike, players like Hinata and Miya Osamu, who excel at various technical plays, would still find a way to send the ball over the net.
After several combinations, it basically became "unstoppable."
And that was precisely why, to prevent this worst-case scenario from occurring, the only way was to disrupt Inarizaki's coordination at its source.
—If only we could prevent the ball from reaching Miya Atsumu's hands so smoothly.
Hoshiumi curled the corners of his mouth, a confident smile on his face: "I'll have a good chat with Meisei later; don't let that huge frame of his go to waste."
A super-skilled spike is the most unstoppable force in volleyball, since Unabara's ability to absorb impact is mediocre, he is the perfect target for them.
But.. that is a story for another time.
The only time they and Inarizaki would meet would be in the Finals, but whether such a day will ever come remains to be seen.
Maybe Inarizaki will be knocked out early under the combined attack of Rakusan and Itachiyama?
Watching the rapidly changing situation on the court, Hoshiumi let out a small click of his tongue.
Well, rather than having Inarizaki get eliminated early, he indeed wanted to have a proper match against Hinata even more.
Chapter 318: The Three Hundred and Eighteenth Fox
Coach Unabara, having found a good viewing angle, stood with his hands on his hips, watching Hinata, who was preparing to serve again in the middle of the court.
He turned his head toward Coach Hiya. "I heard Hinata went to play beach volleyball with Sanjo and the others?"
Utsunomiya didn't tell him explicitly; he had heard the rumor from Bokuto, who had gone out to play matches with the team a while ago.
Coach Hiya nodded. "Yeah, I heard the Libero went too, it seems to be working quite well."
Hinata feels much more solid now, his defensive positioning in both the front row and back row has become much more agile.
But as expected, there was still a slight sense of something being off.
There was a feeling.. like there was still something they hadn't seen.
“What a great First Receive!”
Sakunami Kosuke steadily received Hinata's serve, while Koganezawa quickly moved toward the front row, leaning his body slightly back to pass the ball to Fukiage behind him.
His back set motion was very obvious; his back was already arching before the ball was even released.
Because Ginjima and Rishia could easily identify Koganezawa's passing target, they both reached Fukiage almost immediately, jumping simultaneously to attempt a block against him.
Touch!
A familiar voice came from the front row again. Unabara quickly retreated and sent the ball out: "Atsumu-senpai!"
Miya Atsumu's gaze swept across the block on Date Tech's side, he sent the ball to Rishia Heisuke, who was jumping at Position 2.
Rishia Heisuke aimed for the ball's position and jumped with a heavy thud, soaring to a height beyond Fukiage's expectations under her shocked gaze.
Wait, this Position 4.. can he jump that high?!
At a position slightly higher up in Date Tech's Block, Rishia Heisuke performed an overhand spike, slamming the ball down into Date Tech's court.
Seeing Fukiage's shocked expression, Rishia Heisuke breathed a small sigh of relief.
He was indeed not good at jumping, among the players at Inarizaki, he was among the group with the lowest vertical leap.
Because of this, after the conclusion of last year's Haruko, he made jumping a more important part of his training regimen.
He entered Inarizaki along with Hinata, as long as Miya Atsumu wasn't around, he served as Hinata's sparring partner.
Regarding the matter of "how to jump higher," he had long since mastered it.
Rishia knew very clearly that he couldn't match Hinata's talent in this regard, but he had the most important thing: his height.
Therefore.. as long as he could reach even half of Hinata's jumping ability, he could hit the ball higher than before.
Aran-senpai said that a good spiker must be able to both attack and defend!
Seeing that the ball was about to hit the area behind the Three-meter Line, Sakunami Kosuke, who was under extreme mental tension during this match, reacted almost instantly.
He dove forward and just barely managed to touch the ball with his fingertips, successfully causing it to bounce back up.
"Great save!!" Niokuchi shouted.
Rishia, who had failed to score smoothly, couldn't help but click his tongue, his expression looking a little unpleasant.
Ginjima couldn't help but glance at him, but in the next second, Rishia had already returned to his usual serious and composed demeanor.
“Over here!”
At the same time, on the other side, Miya Atsumu, who saw Koganezawa's pass, also called for Ginjima and the other to come over for the block.
His hands met Nokanawa's powerful spike, Rishia shouted, "Touch!"
"Nice touch!" Unabara moved even closer, delivering a precise overhead set.
In terms of how difficult it is to control the precision of a set, an overhead set is superior to an underhand set, far superior to a dig.
Therefore, under favorable conditions where injury can be avoided, using one's hands is the setting method with the highest ceiling.
However, similarly, setting relies heavily on the wrists to absorb force; when facing a heavy spike, if one fails to grasp the momentum of that exact moment, it can easily lead to injury. Therefore, it is primarily used to handle opportunity balls, balls touched off a block, light dumps that have been anticipated in advance.
Before playing Beach Volleyball, he had already made up his mind to push himself to his absolute limits.
He would never let a ball drop if he could give it to the hitter, he would never resort to a diving save if he could give it to the hitter.
As a Libero, this was the heaviest promise he could make to the setter and the spiker.
“Nice play!” Miya Atsumu praised sincerely.
He played this match with great ease, without being flustered or constantly scrambling.
And in this situation, it was undoubtedly a nightmare for the opponent's block.
As Koganezawa and Niokuchi chased after Ginjima Yui, who was preparing to jump at Position 4, Miya Osamu also jumped from the back row for a back-row attack.
On the other side, Rishia Heisuke rushed toward Position 2 before suddenly stepping aside, leaving an opening in the back row for Hinata to hit a back-row attack, instead transitioned into a counterattack.
Fukiage could not move at all, forced to stay in a one-on-one Block against Hinata.
After all, Miya Atsumu's pass is arguably the most deceptive in all of high school volleyball, making it impossible to easily distinguish his intended target.