He felt that his spike could have definitely scored, but it was still saved.
Miya Osamu said, "There's nothing we can do about it; we just have to keep working hard."
At the same time, Takahashi, sitting in the stands, rubbed his chin and spoke with a serious expression, "Speaking of which, isn't this match just that.."
Sitting beside him, Asahina looked up at him, a hint of doubt in his eyes.
On the other side, Hirugami and Hoshiumi also turned their gaze toward him, trying to listen to what this junior was about to say.
Takahashi raised a finger: "High School's Strongest Libero versus High School's Strongest Setter."
Hoshiumi's mouth twitched, he silently withdrew his gaze.
Hirugami actually agreed, saying, "That's true."
Hearing Takahashi's words, Kongming Asahina smiled after a brief moment of daze, then turned slightly and raised both hands, holding up one finger on each hand toward Takahashi Ai.
“This is a duel between elite troops and powerful generals.”
Takahashi was a bit dazed: "Elite, strong generals?"
Asahina nodded and said patiently, "Komori-senpai and Sakusa-senpai are very strong, but that strength is limited only to their individual abilities, because the Libero and the Wing Spiker are not the axles upon which the entire team's operation turns."
The ones responsible for this are the Setters. The Setter is the general who can command the entire field and drive elite troops, Miya Atsumu-senpai is the highest-level strategist at the current high school level.
Both teams' consecutive championships were built upon a state of balance—meaning Itachiyama, with Iizuna-senpai acting as the general, Inarizaki, with Owari-senpai and the others acting as the soldiers.
Going over Asahina's words in her head, Takahashi nodded. "I understand."
Takahashi expressed complete understanding: "So, you mean both Itachiyama and Inarizaki have become weaker?"
Asahina nodded in approval. "Hmm.. while that's not entirely accurate, you could understand it that way."
If one were to put it that way, relying solely on the individual growth of Komori and Sakusa, Itachiyama could distance itself from the vast majority of teams.
Although Inarizaki no longer has Aran, one of the Five National Spikers, Hinata, Miya Osamu, Suna are all extremely strong players; the only thing they lack is the balanced all-around performance that Aran possesses.
After a brief pause, Takahashi suddenly asked, "What about you, Kongming?"
Hearing Takahashi's question, Kongming Asahina raised his hand and pressed his fingers just below his nose, his palm obscuring the lower half of his face, yet his squinting, smiling eyes remained striking.
Locking eyes with those eyes, Takahashi even felt a moment of tranquility amidst the noisy arena.
Me?
I'm just an ordinary person.
Author's Note:
Inarizaki High School Suna Rintaro (August 2013)
Position: Middle Blocker Number: 6
Height: 188.5cm Weight: 73.9kg
Recent troubles: How to continue using Hoshiumi to spread rumors about the twins without any risk
Ability Stats [Inarizaki High School Third Year Summer]
Strength: 3 Serve: 5
Vertical Leap: 4 Receiving: 4
Explosiveness: 4 Dig: 3
Intelligence: 4 Setting: 4
Technique: 3 Spike: 9
Speed: 4 Block: 7
Chapter 347: The 347th Fox
Arima and Suna completed their substitution and returned to the court, while Itachiyama on the other side of the net had also completed their rotation of the Server.
Coach Kurosu clasped his hands in front of his face, his gaze fixed on the court with a serious expression: "Success or failure rests on this one play."
Currently, the score between the two sides has not widened, if they can stop Sakusa's rotation in the front row, then there will basically be no problems afterward.
Conversely, once Tokura and Arima Shuji are still unable to suppress Sakusa, they will quickly fall into a disadvantage under the firepower threat posed by Itachiyama.
Making eye contact with Hinata across the net, Sakusa gave a slight nod, then raised his hands to either side of his head, providing cover for Date's serve from behind.
Arima rubbed his hands together, once the Head Referee raised his hand and put the whistle in his mouth, he placed both hands at his sides, waiting for the Itachiyama Server's serve.
The signal sounded, Itachiyama's number 11, Date Yusuke, replaced Koldorf to take the Serve.
Watching the relatively unfamiliar player take the court, Arima's expression was serious.
However, this person had appeared in previous footage, his specialty serve was similar to Ishikawa's.
He had already received several of Ishikawa's serves; although they were very strong, they were actually not as good as Sakusa's in all aspects. If you really compared them.. they gave him a feeling very similar to his own teammate, Ginjima.
As he gradually found his rhythm and became more familiar with the opponent's spikes, he gained enough confidence to receive this key Server's serve.
Inarizaki's back row receiving lineup was also quite bold this time; since the Server was not Sakusa, they decisively excluded Miya Atsumu from the back row entirely, leaving only a formation of Miya Osamu and Arima Shuji as the two Wing Spikers and one Libero for the first receive.
Date, who was serving, also felt a massive headache coming on, but the whistle had already blown, so he could only grit his teeth and toss the ball up, aiming it toward Arima, whom he perceived as being slightly easier to target.
Of course, it wasn't aimed directly at him, but rather at the boundary lines of the court.
Actually, Koldorf's serve wasn't weak; at least, he felt it was significantly better than his own, so he wasn't sure why the coach wanted to put him in the game.
But since he was on the court, he had to give it his all!
Watching the trajectory of the ball, Arima shouted decisively, "Out!"
With a loud thud, the ball slammed into the empty space just outside the court corner, the assistant referee made the call.
Date's Serve is out, Inarizaki scores.
Great read!
Seeing that he had given the opponent a point, Date raised his hands to his head, his face written with frustration: "Damn it!"
Inamura hurriedly clapped his hands to comfort his junior: "It's alright, it's alright! Just do your best on the next ball!"
On the court, where players strive for absolute serve quality, the probability of a service error is extremely high; even at the Olympics, there have been instances where both sides consecutively gave several points to their opponents.
As long as their players know exactly what kind of serve they are going to hit, are willing to attempt it, there won't be any problems.
Coach Utsunomiya nodded to Date Yusuke as he left the court, his gaze offering him sufficient affirmation.
Date breathed a sigh of relief, after handing over to Komori, he returned to the waiting area.
Coach Himegomiya crossed her arms over her chest, observing the group over at Inarizaki.
To be honest, without that sense of tension, Inarizaki's substitute Libero performed much better than in the previous set.
They substituted Date for Koldorf mainly because Koldorf's physical condition was looking rather grim after playing the full match, they hoped that a Server in excellent form might produce an unexpected effect during those crucial points.
It was expected that Date would fail to score; after all, they hadn't expected a Deciding Server, whose skill level wasn't particularly outstanding, to score consecutive points and turn the tide.
The Service Right passed to Hinata.
If Date's serve was within Arima Shuji's range of response, then Hinata's serve was no different from a standard standing serve to Komori.
Because the serve couldn't be hit straight and could only be hit in a parabola, the speed of Hinata's serve was still nowhere near the speed of his own spikes, making it very easy to receive.
“Inamoto!” Komori called out to his own Setter.
Inamoto licked his lips and quickly stepped forward to set the ball, the target was not hidden at all; it was Sakusa, who had already rotated to the front row.
Seeing the ball fly towards him, Sakusa, who had already taken a sufficient approach, stepped forward with large strides and leaped at the net, facing off against the lunging Miya Atsumu, Tokura, Ginjima.
The target of this spike was obvious, so Tokura didn't need instructions from Ginjima or Miya Atsumu; as a blocker, he had already adjusted his positioning and jump timing to keep up with the ball.
Looking at the height of Inarizaki's block, Sakusa frowned slightly.
I wonder if it's just my imagination, but does number 11 seem to jump even higher?
Sakusa raised his hand and hit the ball against Tokura's relatively vertical fingers, causing the ball to fly out of bounds by tooling the block.
Compared to Ginjima Yui and Miya Atsumu, Tokura's blocking movement could be described as quite unpracticed; he didn't press down immediately, the distance between his arms was also relatively large.
If he wanted to, he could even drive the ball straight down between the opponent's arms.
However, he didn't have a clear concept of Tokura's power level, so it was difficult to face him directly.
—Let's test them out again.
After a sharp sound, Hinata rushed from the back row to chase the ball, decisively turning and jumping after the ball had passed the volleyball, reaching out to touch it.
With a crisp sound, he received the ball steadily, sending it dropping toward the front of the net.
Miya Atsumu, positioned near Position 4, decisively stepped forward to take over the role of the Ace at Position 4, jumping with the intention to Spike.
Inamura Gen's eyes were vigilant, prepared at any moment to guard against Miya Atsumu's feint spike.
But this time, Miya Atsumu was truly spiking; the power generated by the swing of his arm was no weaker than that of a Spiker, the speed of the spike was incredibly fast.
Komori stepped out from the back row, his arm nearly touching the floor as he received the ball.
The ball flew toward the front row's Attack Line, Inamoto, having secured the ball, raised his hands to set without the slightest hesitation.
But this time, he didn't set the ball to the Ace; instead, following Sakusa's position, he sent the ball to Ogihara, who was positioned even further away.
Relying on his decent height, Ogihara took a short two-step approach and jumped to spike the ball, coordinating with Inamoto to execute a very good flat quick attack.
During the days when he and Inamoto were both still substitutes, the two of them partnered together more than anyone else, naturally, things like the Quick Attack, which require high proficiency, became even stronger due to that familiarity.
Arima's lunging movement was ultimately a step too slow; Ogihara's spike had already slammed onto the front row's three-meter line, Itachiyama scores.
Tokura apologized immediately, "Sorry!"
Their front row block failed to keep up with the opponent's rhythm entirely. Since the block was ineffective, the back row naturally couldn't receive it, as a front row Middle Blocker, he should have taken responsibility for this.
Miya Osamu said decisively, "It was Atsumu and Ginjima's fault."
It had been agreed upon beforehand that Tokura was only responsible for providing blocking height and pure offensive support; judging such things was not his responsibility.
Miya Atsumu gave a light click of his tongue, but he said nothing more.
After all, he had been closest to Ogihara just now, so he should have been the one directing the play, but his attention was drawn to Sakusa, causing him to lose his ability to make a judgment.