Coach Unabara nodded continuously by the sidelines. "Hakuma is already able to flexibly utilize his height advantage. Not bad."
Coach Hiya also laughed heartily. "It's the technique itself.."
Coach Unabara's smile faded. "They still need to practice. I'll train them personally in a while."
He had personally observed these players on-site, all of whom would be promoted to the youth training camp in the near future. He already had a general understanding of their specialties, next.. was to conduct a more detailed exploration.
For example, digging into Hinata's passing techniques, working hard on Hakuma's various skills, correcting Suna's attitude, so on.
It is a long and arduous road ahead.
Watching the live broadcast on the television, Yaotome rubbed his chin and suddenly spoke in the quiet environment, "The pace of the match is quite fast, but it feels so long.."
As he spoke, he instinctively looked toward the senior sitting opposite him.
Kageyama paused for a moment, the look in Yaotome's eyes made him a little unsure of what to say.
Yaotome remained silent for two seconds.
To be honest, he felt as if Kageyama-senpai was asking him—is there?
Fine, fine.
He admitted that, given Kageyama-senpai's level of obsession with volleyball, it would be extremely difficult to make him find a match long and boring.
So Yaotome looked toward the relatively easy-to-approach Yamaguchi Tadashi.
After thinking seriously for a moment, Yamaguchi Tadashi replied, "If there are no consecutive scores or long rallies.. it really is a bit monotonous."
Because they knew the opponent's counterattacks would be troublesome, matches between Inarizaki and Karasuno usually reached a conclusion within a single rally, with the spikers aiming their spikes directly at the stands to ensure the opposition had no chance to dig the ball.
Hoshiumi and Hinata's frequency of tooling the block increased significantly, their spikes were aimed almost directly at the second-floor spectator stands.
Four "lucky spectators" have already been hit by the ball, one of them was even a player from Itachiyama.
Has Inarizaki not let us off the hook yet??
Iizuna raised his hand to cover his face, while Sakusa, standing beside him, had just spiked back the ball that Hinata had tipped over the block.
Hinata bowed in apology toward Itachiyama, then turned and headed back onto the court.
After winning this point, the score became 23:23, it was exactly his turn to serve.
Karasuno's plan to build a two-point lead before reaching 16 points failed to materialize; instead, Inarizaki dragged them into the end of the set in a near-tie.
Of course, this was not good news for Inarizaki.
Hinata let out a soft sigh.
His condition couldn't be described as good either; with his energy being insufficient, he could only manage to ensure his serves were free of errors for the time being.
The ball was received by the opponent's Libero, Karasuno quickly organized a counterattack, with Asahina scoring via a Second Attack.
23:24, Set point for Karasuno, Norikura Isao serves.
I've got it!
Unabara stepped up, received the ball, accurately sent it toward the area near the front row attack line.
Miya Atsumu, who was already in position, suddenly pulled back his hand, feinting a Second Attack.
But the Karasuno players were not fooled; Bessho waited very cautiously for the movement of the final ball.
Noticing Hoshiumi moving forward to prepare for a front-court dump out of the corner of his eye, Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue inwardly before turning and passing the ball to Hinata, who was performing a back-row attack under Rishia's cover.
Hinata stared at the Karasuno block rushing toward him, pulling back his strength at the moment of the spike to turn what would have been a heavy spike into a light tap.
The ball grazed the edge of the block and dropped down, forcing Asahina to turn and scoop it up immediately after it hit the ground.
Miya Atsumu's pupils contracted.
The setter touched the ball, after that, eighty percent of the setter's responsibility belonged to Hoshiumi.
And Hoshiumi's setting..
The moment of contact, Hoshiumi's body leaned back slightly, using his hand to push the ball toward the front of the net.
With a forceful snap of the wrist, the ball traveled at an extremely high speed, reaching Bessho's hands almost instantly.
Tokura's mind went blank for a moment.
—A Quick Attack.
By the time he tried to chase after it, it was already too late; Bessho had already completed the spike against the empty net.
Unabara dove from the back row to attempt a dig, but..
It was too fast.
He couldn't catch up.
Unabara bit his lower lip hard, reaching out with everything he had, but in the end, the ball still landed less than ten centimeters from his fingertips.
The whistle echoed throughout the arena at that moment, the scoreboard at the side of the court jumped to Inarizaki 23:25 Karasuno.
At the very end of this set, Karasuno had their second opportunity to score consecutive points in a single set, securing the victory.
Miya Atsumu pulled his gaze away from the scoreboard at the side of the court and let out a soft sigh.
Tokura immediately admitted his mistake: "Sorry! My bad!"
He should have realized that Hoshiumi was going to call for a Quick Attack; the game footage they watched showed multiple instances where Hoshiumi had called for Hirugami to perform a Quick Attack, Miya Atsumu had even emphasized this point.
Miya Atsumu waved his hand dismissively. "I didn't expect it either."
Quick Attacks require absolute chemistry and proficiency; before this, Hoshiumi had only performed Quick Attacks with Hirugami, so he had prematurely assumed that Hoshiumi had only practiced with Hirugami.
But during this time.. Hoshiumi had already completed his coordination with Bessho.
It really gave him a huge fright.
Hinata had already jogged all the way to Unabara's side, reaching out to pull him up forcefully, dragged him toward the Coach's bench.
Unabara was somewhat dejected, staring at the back of Hinata's head in his field of vision as he said, "I'm sorry."
The Coach only allowed him to play two sets. They had originally planned to win these two sets and then enter the next set with relative composure, holding three set points.
But now.. there was no difference between being one win and one loss down or starting from scratch, they had sacrificed the Ace's condition to some extent in pursuit of victory in this set, only to ultimately miss out on the win.
Hinata's voice came from the front: "It's normal that I couldn't save it. If I had to say.. it's mostly my fault."
If he had been able to spike that ball dead just now, there wouldn't have been any issue with the subsequent defensive save.
To fail to fulfill his duties as an Ace when it was time to step up.. he is such an incompetent Ace.
Seeing Hinata biting his lip with a serious expression, Miya Atsumu cast him a concerned look.
Hinata shook his head and simply sat down in his chair upon the coach's signal, while Coach Omimi crouched down to check the condition of his calves and knees.
Unabara also sat down on the other side, quietly observing everyone's condition.
The coach didn't come over to check on his condition immediately; Arima Shuji was already warming up.. It was likely that he wasn't being prepared to play in the next set.
Looking down at his leg wrapped in a compression bandage, Unabara couldn't help but purse his lips.
He needed to rest well; there might be another chance to play later.
This was his first time playing an entire tournament match as a starter, so no matter what, he had to deliver a satisfactory performance.
Hinata glanced sideways at Unabara, seeing that Unabara was clearly lost in thought, he reached out to pat him.
But in the next second, Coach Omimi pressed on the area of his right patella, the sudden surge of pain made him cry out, startling Unabara.
“Ow, ow, ow—!” Hinata looked at Coach Omimi.
Coach Omimi grabbed the pain relief spray and sprayed a bit on Hinata: "Sorry, I used too much force."
Without much word, Coach Omimi turned his head toward Rishia, who was busy helping out: "Do you have any new knee pads? For Shoyo."
"Yes." Rishia went straight to the coach's bag and pulled one out.
Although it wasn't the thick version Hinata was wearing now, it was still enough.
Miya Atsumu, who was discussing the strategy for the next set with Coach Kurosu, looked over upon hearing the voice. "What is it?"
“The metal support on this side has been bent too many times, it has torn the inside of the knee pad.” As he spoke, Coach Omimi pointed to the side of Hinata's knee, which was clearly rubbed red by the damaged area of the knee pad; if he hadn't checked and discovered it in time, it might have torn further and bled during another set.
Hinata looked down at it himself. "I didn't feel a thing.."
You definitely wouldn't feel it if you're wrapped up tight," Coach Kurosu said, reaching out to pat his head, before turning to look at the listless Unabara. "Unabara, Omimi will take you to the infirmary in a moment. Have the doctor give you a thorough check-up to see if the injury has worsened.
Omimi nodded. "Okay."
Unabara looked up at Coach Kurosu, but Kurosu had already averted his gaze.
Even so, he could faintly sense the true meaning behind Coach Kurosu's words.
—If his injury doesn't get any worse, he'll be able to play later.
Unabara instantly perked up and responded loudly, "Yes!"
He believed that he had done a good job of protecting himself during these two sets, there was a high probability that his injury would not worsen!
After patting Unabara, Coach Kurosu turned his head to fill in the rotation for the Third Set.
Watching the two sides reconfirm their rotations and servers, Komori frowned slightly in the stands. "This is bad.."
His expression was not very good, he broke into a cold sweat for Inarizaki.
Just as they had previously inferred, Inarizaki failed to take this set, it will likely be even harder to play after this.
Even if we look on the bright side, the opponent's Libero is somewhat injured, Hoshiumi's condition has also been dragged down, but.. Karasuno has a guy who isn't limited by physical condition at all.
Even if his stamina can't keep up and his positioning is already causing issues with the block, Hakuma's height alone means that as long as he can jump even a little, he can pull off a pretty decent spike.
And the most critical issue was that Inarizaki's starting Libero had already left, which meant their defense had been weakened as a result.. the situation was only going to get more serious.
Asahina walked to the service position holding the ball, letting out a long breath.
Give me a good serve!!
Chapter 366: The 366th Fox
There were no changes to the lineups of either side in the Third Set; both teams were fielding the most reasonable and powerful rosters available to them at this stage.