Hearing the whistle, Miya Atsumu raised his hand and clenched his fist.
This wasn't to silence the Inarizaki cheers, but to call for even more enthusiastic applause.
The stands erupted instantly: "Ohhhhhhh—Three points! That was incredible! Atsumu!"
Kita Shinsuke clapped his hands: "Impressive."
Compared to when he was with him, Miya Atsumu's serve has improved significantly.
Aran couldn't help but complain, "As expected of a star, even the way he celebrates after scoring a point with a serve is exactly the same.."
Actually, they are still in the middle of their V1 match cycle, but they happen to have a break for the next two days.
Oikawa Tooru went to Kyoto to watch the Izumo Hornets' match; they were his next away opponents, so he didn't come with him to watch the National Sports Festival.
After losing three points in a row, Coach Kashiwa couldn't help but call a time-out.
On the fourth play after the time-out, although Miya Atsumu failed to score directly with his serve, Hayakawa Industrial's formation was already in disarray, allowing Suna to score a point with a block.
Overconfident Miya Atsumu's fifth serve hit the net, bringing the service turn to a halt.
Watching Hinata cowering and trembling with his hands over his head after nearly getting hit, Miya Osamu mocked him mercilessly, "What kind of thing are you?"
Miya Atsumu clicked his tongue. "If you're so capable, you do it!"
Continuous serving is quite exhausting, you know? During their usual training, they would stop to adjust their feel after three or four serves. This situation, where they perform five consecutive power serves, makes it very easy for problems to arise due to a loss of touch or leg fatigue.
His hand was just a bit numb from the frequent hitting, he hadn't controlled the distance well when tossing the ball.
After locking eyes with Miya Osamu for five seconds, Miya Atsumu admitted defeat.
Fine, he admitted it was his fault.
It looks like I'll have to go back and train hard on this technique..
The members of Hayakawa Industrial felt as if they had been granted a general amnesty, Wajima felt as though he had suddenly come back to life.
There is still one rotation before Miya Atsumu's Serve, he wants to warm up his touch as much as possible..
Yamashiro Soji serves.
Nishizawa was a bit nervous, but overall, he didn't make any major mistakes.
He received the power serve steadily, sending it right up to Miya Atsumu's head.
"Beautiful first receive," Sakusa praised sincerely.
Although Yamashiro Soji's serve wasn't particularly powerful, its force, speed, spin were all more than adequate.
For a first-year Libero, being able to receive a ball like that is already quite impressive.
After all, not every freshman is Komori, who took the title of the strongest in all of high school the moment he stepped onto the court.
Koldorf nodded. "True, looking at all of high school volleyball, this level of receiving would be considered mid-tier."
Inamura closed his eyes in pain. "Think about it, with Miya Atsumu, Suna, the others there, even a rookie could develop their first receive skills."
Unabara Uta's strength is widely recognized as not being in the top tier, but he has never had any major issues with his first receive..
Before he could even finish his sentence, a whistle suddenly rang out on the court, Inarizaki scored once again.
That day, Hinata's Quick Attack came from Position 4, hitting near the sideline while avoiding the Block.
Wajima fell to the ground, unable to even see where the ball was.
You can't play this, seriously.
Chapter 408: The 408th Fox
Looking at the somewhat silent Hayakawa Industrial side, Komori sighed softly, "They've lost their spirit."
Koldorf nodded slightly. "We're already down 4:1 before the match has even officially begun; it's only natural to feel discouraged."
Having fallen so far behind without even seeing the opponent's true strength, it would be essentially impossible to catch up.
To put it bluntly, Hayakawa Industrial could already choose to forfeit this set.
Inamura leaned against the back of a chair in the front row, sighing softly, "It's true, Hayakawa Industrial has no Strong Attack, they can't even defend against Inarizaki's offense. No matter which way you look at it, their path is completely blocked."
Wajima got up from the ground, his mind completely blank.
He was very clear about the gap in strength between his side and Inarizaki; they, who specialized in a slow pace, were inherently a terrible match for Inarizaki.
Within his field of vision.. he could not see a path to victory.
But admitting defeat like this would be truly humiliating; not only would it bring shame upon themselves, but it would also bring shame upon the seniors who had already graduated.
Anyway, this match will likely be their last match of this National Sports Festival trip, so they should play with everything they have, without any inhibitions.
Just consider it.. a free, high-level training match.
Watching the ball smash over the net, Wajima shouted loudly, "I've got it!"
"Give me the ball!" Asakura shouted for the set.
The setter, Kanayama, quickly moved into position and set the ball to Asakura.
But Suna and Hinata from the opposing side had already lunged forward, Asakura's lack of contact point became the most fatal problem. He had aimed as best he could at the undersized Hinata, but by coordinating their jumps, Hinata and Suna managed to ensure Hinata made contact with the ball.
One-touch!
Hearing Hinata's voice, Nishizawa felt exceptionally reassured.
In a confrontation, he might face issues like slow anticipation due to a lack of experience, but as long as the Block can get a One-touch, it shouldn't be a major problem.
As long as he can deliver the ball perfectly above Miya Atsumu's head..
Then that point is secured.
Watching the score gap in this set rapidly widen to Inarizaki 16, Hayakawa Industrial 7, Inamura felt his scalp go numb in the stands.
“Inarizaki's scoring ability.. why does it feel like they've become even stronger?”
No.." Sakusa's voice came from beside him, "They aren't much stronger.
Inamura turned her head to look at him, wanting to wait for his explanation for the next sentence.
Sakusa, who had originally stopped talking and didn't intend to say anything more, froze for a moment. Under Inamura's expectant gaze, he spoke again: "Rather than saying my scoring ability has improved, it would be more accurate to say I'm giving away fewer points."
Inamura blinked, trying to digest Sakusa's words.
He wanted to hear more reflections from Sakusa, but Sakusa had already withdrawn his gaze and was no longer looking at him.
Koldorf picked up from Sakusa's words: "By strengthening defense, you can turn points that might have been lost into points for your own side, achieving an effect far greater than one plus one equals two."
Inamura looked back at him silently. "I understand, I just wanted Sakusa to say a few more words."
"Oh." Koldorf shut his mouth.
Komori reached out and tapped Nishizawa Hokuto, who was talking to Hinata near the coach: "Even though he doesn't look very flashy, Inarizaki's number 17 is quite skilled."
His fundamentals are very solid, but he clearly lacks experience, his physical reaction speed is a bit slow.
Inamura gasped, "Then isn't that incredibly impressive?"
Although Komori himself didn't have a difficult personality like Sakusa and was quite kind, he had rarely given out praise like "quite a good level."
Not to mention.. it's for a Libero.
He scratched his head, feeling somewhat bewildered.
To be honest, he didn't understand.
He could see that his fundamentals were solid, but he didn't think number 17 could be labeled as someone truly formidable.
Komori smiled and gave a simple explanation: "His awareness is excellent. Hayakawa Industrial also tried to use technical plays to evade Suna and the others' tricky Block, number 17 could guess where the opponent was going to spike every single time, he just couldn't keep up with it.
Having said that, he raised his hand to stroke his chin. "But it's very strange."
“His fundamentals are excellent; his receiving movement and ball control have no issues, yet he still can't keep up with the balls even after he has already predicted their trajectory.”
“It's as if..”
Komori paused for a moment, in the next second, Sakusa's voice rang out.
There's no real combat experience.
Yes, that's exactly the feeling.
Hayami frowned by the sidelines, her gaze toward Nishizawa Hokuto looking rather unfriendly: "Your movements are a bit hesitant and sluggish.."
Arashiyama laughed, teasingly asking, "You don't seem to like him, do you?"
Hayami denied it: "No."
“I just don't understand why Coach Kurosu would put him on the court, purely to gain experience for the big tournament? Is it worth it?”
Arashiyama shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. Hinata started in his first match back then, looking at it now, it was definitely worth it."
Hayami wrinkled his nose, hands in his pockets, tucked his neck into his collar: "That would be so annoying.."
“But it doesn't matter, I will be stronger than all of them.”
Even if he were a player who could only take the court for a dozen minutes, he would be impeccable during that brief time.
In the stands, Inamura gazed quietly at Sakusa: "Don't you think that description sounds a bit familiar?"
Thinking back to those years, they seemed to evaluate Hinata in the same way.
Everyone from Itachiyama fell silent at the same time.
Coach Himegomiya, who was still near the court, had already started wailing while clutching Coach Kusubashi.
“What's his excuse! What's Kurosu's excuse!"
Those golden eggs are jumping into his bowl one after another! Why can't I catch any!
Coach Kusubashi remained silent: ".."
That was a great question, she wanted to know the answer as well.
When it came to recruiting, she considered her luck to be quite good; at the very least, she had successfully recruited Tomomichi Chita.
She also had her eye on a setter from Kumamoto Prefecture, who had already agreed to transfer to Shirabu next year for school and could play alongside Chita.