Komori felt overwhelmed by it all, thinking, "The requirements are so high."
After a brief moment of thought, Sakusa suddenly said, "It's not that bad; Coach Utsunomiya and Coach Himegomiya's resumes both far exceed these requirements."
Not only did the two have high academic qualifications, but they also had experience working with professional teams.
After all, the recruitment requirements for Itachiyama were foremost the academic credentials, the subsequent requirements were the qualities a prestigious coach should possess.
Coach Himegomiya gave a triumphant smile. "Of course, just look at who I am."
She tilted her head back and said with full confidence, "None of the students I set my sights on have ever escaped my grasp."
Of course, under normal circumstances, no one would refuse an invitation from her, or from Itachiyama.
Coach Himegomiya couldn't help but click her tongue in annoyance as she glanced at Saru Nagi, who had just scored a spike on the other side of the court, bringing a wave of cheers.
Regardless, Utsunomiya's failure to recruit new members couldn't be blamed on her.
As if sensing what her old partner was thinking, Utsunomiya silently turned back to look at her and said gloomily, "Let's get this straight, Shoyo is the one I scouted."
Coach Himegomiya was momentarily speechless and coughed twice in embarrassment.
She quickly made an excuse, "That little sister is also Shoyo."
Inamoto, who hadn't noticed the coaches competing at all, was captivated by the match on the court; seeing Hinata perfectly receive the ball that had been blocked back, he couldn't help but cheer.
“He saved it! That was so cool!!”
Noticing that everyone from Itachiyama was looking at him, he hurriedly tried to downplay it: "But he's still far behind Sakusa-senpai."
In their team, Sakusa is often the one responsible for the task of front-row counterattacks within the lines, the number of balls he receives from Sakusa's sets is second only to Komori.
Among the Wing Spikers, Sakusa-senpai has the highest receiving skill, he accepts no arguments!
Sakusa rejected such praise: "Don't say that. With Shoyo's rate of growth, he will reach a place very close to me sooner or later."
Inamoto indicated that he understood, but quickly corrected himself: "So, there's still a bit of a distance between him and Sakusa-senpai."
Hearing this, Sakusa nodded silently.
Komori looked at Sakusa, then at Inamoto, finally gave a helpless smile.
At the end of the day, Sakusa still firmly believed that he would always be the stronger one, no matter when.
Of course, he believed that as well.
The whistle blew again, the score jumped to Inarizaki 16:11 Rakusan.
Inamura Gen was a bit surprised: "That was fast."
The pace of this match was slightly beyond his expectations; after the rotation where Hinata moved to the back row, Rakusan's scoring frequency increased significantly.
In contrast, the match between Karasuno and Fukurodani next door had only reached 13 points.
Miyazaki Sho narrowed his eyes. "That little one on the other side is so strange.."
The Captain, Harukawa, took a sip of water and nodded in agreement. "Indeed, his offensive strength is actually even greater when he's in the back row."
In their impression, Hinata mainly focused on performing quick attacks and high balls in the front row, when combined with the cover provided to him during rotations, or the cover he provided to other spikers, his overall offensive intensity was terrifying.
But when rotating to the back row, he loses some of the speed he possesses when attacking from the front row, causing his function as a decoy to decrease.
But in the previous rotation, they could clearly feel that once Hinata moved to the back row, Inarizaki's overall offense became even more intense.
To the point that even with Hinata in the front row, they still found it quite uncomfortable to play against them.
—Why is that?
A sense of dissonance lingered in the back of my mind, but the brief time-out had ended, everyone returned to the court.
Nice serve, Ginjima-senpai!
After Inarizaki scored consecutive points, the Service Right remained with Ginjima.
Ginjima's serve was simply pure, heavy power, but a ball that was equally refined in both power and speed was just as difficult to receive.
Compared to serves like jump floats or side spins, failing to receive this kind of power serve leaves you with a sense of pure helplessness.
But the Rakusan libero chose a very clumsy way to play, simply performing a very basic diving receive, causing the ball to fly out of control toward the backline of the Inarizaki court.
Hinata, being the closest, quickly judged that the ball would not go out of bounds and retreated to receive the ball under Miya Atsumu's signal.
He raised his hand, delivering a rather good overhead set toward the Attack Line.
Nice play!
As Miya Osamu and Suna moved forward simultaneously, Hinata, who had just finished receiving, also quickly circled around the back row of the court, taking a running start toward the three-meter line.
Rishia and Ginjima adjusted their positions simultaneously, getting ready to receive the ball.
Harukawa looked at the positioning of the Inarizaki members on the opposite side and suddenly captured the source of that sense of incongruity that had lingered in his heart.
Why was Inarizaki's offense even stronger when Hinata was in the back row?
Because Miya Atsumu is in the front row at this time, he can reduce the possibility of being targeted by spikes by participating in the block, the number of defensive players in the back row has increased from two to three.
This improvement in defense will also indirectly strengthen the offense, thereby creating the conditions to execute many attacks that were previously difficult to complete.
Of course, this requires the Opposite facing the Setter to possess strong offensive capabilities themselves, as well as defensive skills that are second to none compared to other Wing Spikers.
Not to mention that Miya Atsumu can even perform a Second Attack from the front row, just like.. like he is doing now.
Their targets of vigilance were not just several Spikers, but also Miya Atsumu, who could give them a huge surprise at any moment.
No, it was a complete shock.
As Miya Atsumu's body leaned toward a forward set, Harukawa, acting as the blocker, quickly followed up, charging toward Miya Osamu who was initiating an attack from Position 4.
And in that very instant, as he completed his jump set, Miya Atsumu suddenly twisted his body mid-air.
His body twisted sharply to his right, forcefully redirecting the ball toward the Position 2 marker near Inarizaki and slightly backward.
Hinata, who had jumped from the back row a step earlier, spiked the ball with precision. The massive momentum from his arm swing sent the ball soaring at a terrifying speed.
Before Uehara could make any effective reaction, the ball had already slammed into the floor and then bounced out of bounds.
Hinata landed amidst the cheers and applause, turning his head to raise his hand toward Miya Atsumu, who was right in front of him.
Miya Atsumu also raised his hands and gave them a heavy clap: "Nice play! Shoyo!"
Having received praise, Shoyo also said excitedly, "Atsumu-ge's set was also super good!"
That fake move just now was incredibly cool; he was going to go back and watch it a hundred times!
As he gazed at Miya Atsumu's profile, Hinata suddenly felt a bit dazed.
Thinking back on it now..
At this time last year, when he saw Atsumu's diving save, he seemed to have already become fascinated by him.
Miya Atsumu, who was talking to Miya Osamu with his head turned aside, noticed Hinata's gaze and turned to look at him. "What is it?"
Hinata searched through the meager vocabulary in his brain, finally saying earnestly, "No, it's just that I think Atsumu-ge is so handsome he's.. invincible."
Miya Atsumu visibly faltered for a moment before saying, without a hint of embarrassment, "Of course, I'm the most handsome person in the high school volleyball world right now."
As for why it wasn't the entire volleyball world..
Because he was willing to crown Oikawa Tooru as the most handsome person in professional volleyball, a title that would last until the day he himself graduated.
Before that, he was willing to grant the other person a temporary equal status to himself in terms of "handsomeness," out of respect for how Oikawa had fought so hard for his and Hinata's relationship and career.
Miya Osamu said without mercy, "You're so thick-skinned."
If Miya Atsumu was referring to his face, he could never be the "best."
Because.. the two of them look exactly alike.
Miya Atsumu chose to ignore Miya Osamu, turning his head instead to encourage Ginjima, who was going to continue his serve.
However, Ginjima's serve failed to score again, whereas Miya Atsumu's own serve did manage to take one point.
Rakusan quickly executed a counterattack on the second ball, taking back the service right.
Miyazaki Sho, who was preparing to serve, was feeling a bit irritated at this moment.
His offensive level itself wasn't actually weak, but in previous matches, considering strategic requirements, the setter didn't call for him to perform many power attacks.
But in today's match, even without any need for restraint, the number of times he received the ball was still very low.
This was certainly not because the setter didn't want to give him the ball, or didn't trust his ability, but rather because the pressure from Inarizaki's side against the Libero was too intense; from the opening until now, they had rarely had the opportunity to organize a decent offense.
Given that the quality of the ball itself wasn't good enough, Yumi Matsuo would naturally prioritize Aoba Haruka, who had a high adaptability to all kinds of balls.
He could understand all of this, but that didn't stop him from being annoyed.
However.. serves are not affected by these things, it is precisely the best time to score.
He took the first point of this set, he had considerable confidence in the trickiness of his serve.
Unabara Uta slightly raised his center of gravity, rather than preparing to receive the ball in a low stance like before.
After several rounds of play, he now understood Miyazaki Sho's side spin quite well, had enough confidence to handle this kind of serve.
The whistle blew, Unabara Uta's eyes were fixed intently on Miyazaki Sho on the opposite side.
Come on, he won't be afraid.
Chapter 329: The 329th Fox
Tossing the volleyball in his hands, Miyazaki's gaze swept past Unabara Uta and locked onto Rishia Heisuke beside him.
His side spin followed a relatively fixed trajectory, while he was most comfortable attacking the center, he could also sacrifice some of the ball's speed to increase his own control over the ball, thereby achieving the goal of attacking other positions.
Inarizaki's Libero is slightly better than Uehara-senpai, it's obvious he has adapted quite a bit to the serves from this last rotation; continuing to target him won't yield any particularly significant results.
In short.. let's try out this Inarizaki Wing Spiker first.
Feeling that he was being targeted, Rishia's face showed little emotional fluctuation; he simply silently lowered his center of gravity, ready at any moment to receive the spike.
The ball came smashing toward him almost instantly, still carrying an incredibly exaggerated arc; in Rishia's impression, among everyone who could hit a side spin, this one could be ranked among the top few.
However, because Miya Atsumu could also do a bit of this, they had managed to receive it during regular practice.
This ball was much slower than the ones hit at Unabara Uta, so as long as the direction of the spin is judged correctly, it should be possible to receive.