"Great receive!" Miya Atsumu praised, following up.
Miya Osamu jumped from Position 4, coordinating with Miya Atsumu for a sync attack while ensuring that he could spike the ball regardless of the situation.
Miya Atsumu also chose to trust him, after performing a fake move for a Second Attack, he sent the ball out.
But on the surface, Hirugami appeared to be making no move, yet he had actually been eyeing Miya Osamu for a long time. Even considering the twins' chemistry and the tension of the current situation, he was very certain that the one who would ultimately perform the spike was Miya Osamu.
Hirugami decisively moved with Hoshiumi and Tokura Ria to follow him, the three of them jumping up to form a block in front of Miya Osamu, cutting off all of his spiking lanes.
With Bessho behind him defending the front court, Miya Osamu didn't really want to go for a dump; after a brief moment of thought, he decided to play a tool against the block, allowing Miya Atsumu to resume his offensive coordination.
But just at that moment, Hirugami, who had already anticipated Miya Osamu's logic, pressed down directly, causing the ball that was originally intended to rebound back into Inarizaki's court to drop almost vertically back into Inarizaki's court.
The whistle blew in the next second, Karasuno scored through a block.
Karasuno scored consecutive points to take the lead.
The score jumped to Inarizaki 22:23 Karasuno.
Beautiful! Great block!!
Take it all in one go!!
Miya Osamu raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his face: "That was mine."
Miya Atsumu, in a rare move, did not reproach his twin brother for such a major mistake: "It's fine."
Hirugami, who had only played half a set, was still full of energy, whereas Miya Osamu, who was bearing the primary offensive burden of this set, certainly couldn't match the opponent's reaction speed.
His setter should have been more decisive.
No, actually, he shouldn't have given it to Miya Osamu; choosing Tokura on the other side might have been a better option.
He had put too much pressure on Miya Osamu.
After a brief moment of self-reflection, Miya Atsumu let out a long sigh. "There's still a chance to tie it up, don't get nervous."
Inarizaki gave Karasuno no more chances to score, as Miya Osamu and Miya Atsumu swapped roles with perfect chemistry, Miya Atsumu scored with a spike.
Inarizaki 23:23 Karasuno, the score is tied once again.
Tokura stood in the service position.
It was the same kind of service turn at the end of the set as before, at this moment, he was even more nervous.
This time his serve was even more important; he could not afford even the slightest mistake.
But the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen. He failed his serve because he couldn't control the power, but fortunately, the ball dropped early and hit the net directly, accidentally resulting in a net touch.
Hoshiumi quickly moved in for the receive, Hirugami coordinated with Tokura Ria for a quick attack spike to score.
Inarizaki 23, Karasuno 24. Karasuno set point.
Iizuna frowned in the stands. "This is bad.."
Tokura Ria, having gained the service right, walked to the service area.
Actually, he is also one of Karasuno's key players for scoring points, so.. he will definitely make an impact!
Tossing the volleyball lightly in her hands, Tokura Ria raised her hand to toss the ball up in the final second of the service limit.
The heavy spike smashed through the net toward Inarizaki, Arima, being the quickest to react, stepped forward to receive the ball.
"Nice!" Miya Atsumu shouted, then stepped forward, preparing to set.
After confirming the opponent's positioning, he sent a light, teasing Second Attack over.
Hoshiumi, who received the ball, sent it as high as possible, Tokura Ria from the back row quickly followed up to provide a second set.
"Give me the ball!" Hoshiumi shouted for the toss.
Tokura did not hesitate for long and sent the ball directly toward Hoshiumi.
Facing Inarizaki's three-man block, Hoshiumi-senpai jumped without a trace of fear.
Just as Suna adjusted his hand position, judging that he was going to use the block to tool the shot, Hoshiumi-senpai lightly tapped the volleyball, sending it directly over as a dump.
And.. it wasn't just a normal dump, but a backspin.
Although it wasn't as tricky as Hinata's, it was more than enough in terms of its accelerating descent.
Tokura dove for a diving save, but his movements were quite unpracticed, he only barely touched the ball, failing to lift its height.
On the other side, Miya Osamu pulled back from the block and lunged forward to try and save the ball, but his second touch failed to lift the height of the ball, instead sending it toward the sidelines.
Hinata rushed over and dove, stretching out with all his might in an attempt to touch the ball.
Please! I have to touch it! I have to.. get it over the net!
Thud.
A light sound rang in everyone's ears. Hinata, who had lunged forward, ultimately managed to touch the ball, but even though he had exerted all his strength to pop it up, the ball only struck the top edge of the net.
Hinata's eyes widened.
In the next instant, the volleyball was carried over by the force, passing incredibly close to the very top edge of the net.
—The ball hovered momentarily above the top of the net.
The entire Inarizaki No. 2 Gymnasium fell into silence, everyone holding their breath as they watched the ball.
Hinata stared at the ball, his vision passing through the shadow of the volleyball to see the lights hanging high above at the very top.
The next second.
Thunderous applause erupted.
Standing under the spotlight, still holding the salute, Imai panted heavily.
She looked toward the dark audience, her gaze sweeping over the judges whose faces were indistinguishable, in the auditorium that was gradually falling silent, the only thing she could clearly hear.. was her own heartbeat.
—It's over.
To be honest, it was difficult to hear the overall performance during the ensemble, the quality of the in-ear monitors in the venue itself was mediocre; whenever the volume increased, the sound would be drowned out.
This was her first time performing in a concert hall of this scale, the echoes and resonance caused by the hall's own structure only amplified the problem.
So.. she wasn't quite sure how their performance actually was.
She could only confirm that she hadn't made any mistakes, that was all.
Unlike a volleyball match where every point can be seen clearly with one's own eyes, they knew nothing until the judges announced the scores and the final rankings.
After all, besides technical skill, aspects like emotional expression are also important scoring criteria in musical performance.
Leaving the stage behind him after following the Third Year trumpeter, Imai only truly breathed a sigh of relief the moment he stepped into the darkness of the backstage area.
After that.. I'll just have to leave it up to fate.
Before she could even pack up her things and head to her seat on the second floor, a voice drifted out from the crowd passing by her side.
Inarizaki's performance certainly had no mistakes, but there are a few too many first-year students in the team, so their emotional expression is clearly not quite seasoned enough..
True, it feels a bit too restrained, like they lack passion.
As expected, the champion will still be Yamazaki Tachibana.
It seemed that they had seen her from the side, so the two of them fell silent and then quickly left.
Imai gripped her bag tightly and finally continued walking toward the stairwell.
To be honest, they had expected this result; Yamazaki Tachibana's performance this year could hardly be described as just "good," it was his best in several years.
To win against an opponent like that, Inarizaki was still quite a bit lacking.
Sitting down in the seat her friend had saved for her, Imai pulled out her tablet and opened the IH tournament video she had closed earlier.
The third set of the Finals has ended.
The score in the bottom left corner of the live broadcast was Inarizaki 1:2 Karasuno.
Karasuno won the third set.
Chapter 370: The 370th Fox
Pressing the ice pack against his face, Hinata mumbled, "I should have reacted a bit faster. For that kind of ball, you need to use a diving receive to pop it up.."
Miya Atsumu hurriedly spoke up to comfort him, "It's fine, it's fine. There are still two sets left; it's too early to say who will win."
If it were best of three, it would indeed be over by now.
But this is best of five; as long as they take the next two sets, it will be their victory.
It's impossible for every end of a set to favor Inarizaki; time and place won't always be on Inarizaki's side.
Coach Kurosu turned his head toward Miya Atsumu. "Regarding the rotation for the Fourth Set, do you want to make any adjustments?"
Miya Atsumu shook his head. "Let's stick with S1; there's no need to make adjustments."
Our main objective is actually to use Tokura to limit Hakuma, the original S1 rotation can guarantee that.
Right beside him, Hinata looked up at Miya Atsumu. "Why? Isn't Hakuma-senpai starting in Position 4?"
Miya Atsumu lowered his head to fill out the rotation chart for the fourth rotation, while simultaneously discussing other details with Coach Kurosu; he could only lift his pen and point toward Kumagai on the other side, signaling Hinata to ask Kumagai.
So Hinata turned to look at Kumagai.
Kumagai glanced at Miya Atsumu, seeing that he indeed had no time, simply explained, "Hakuma-senpai has been worn down by you quite a bit. In the last set, numbers 9 and 10 were both using high-intensity rotations against Hakuma-senpai; starting from this set, it's estimated that Hoshiumi-senpai will be the core."
Hinata understood: "Oh, so there's a high probability that Hoshiumi-senpai will start from Position 4, right?"
At this, Hinata's eyes instantly lit up: "Then I'll have a chance to face Hoshiumi-senpai head-on! Like, facing him for an entire rotation!"
After confirming with Coach Kurosu and finishing the form, Miya Atsumu looked back. "Regrettably, it probably won't last a full rotation."
Hearing this, Hinata froze. "Eh? Atsumu-ge, aren't you starting?"
Miya Atsumu laughed, "Of course I'm serving first, but we'll play a 4-2 rotation this set. Shoyo, you handle the left wing offense."
After saying that, he looked at Kumagai: "Kuniharu, I'm leaving the task of coordinating high balls with Shoyo to you; don't worry about the quick attack."
Kumagai nodded, "Understood."
Miya Atsumu turned his head, looking toward Karasuno in the distance, where Asahina was talking to Tokura Ria while holding a water bottle, he flashed a rather sinister smile.