Unabara Uta held her breath.
Rishia Heisuke silently shifted toward the edge of the Coach's bench, attempting to create some distance from Unabara Uta.
He pressed his hands together, offering a moment of silence for Unabara Uta in advance.
Rest in peace; he will miss Unabara Uta.
Inarizaki played this set very smoothly. Although Tokura Ria, who was substituted in, managed to compensate for some of the blocking, she was still unable to restrict Inarizaki's offensive rhythm because one of the main blockers, Hakuma, could no longer jump effectively.
Facing Inarizaki's Double Quick, Tokura Ria felt overwhelmed for the first time.
This isn't right. Something is wrong.
Although Hinata has great stamina, Miya Osamu was in an energy-saving state before.. given Inarizaki's offensive rhythm, he doesn't think they can truly sustain it until the very end.
And.. the depth of Inarizaki's substitute bench is a bit too ridiculous!
That number 17 player made error after error when he first came on, but after a while, he stopped pretending; several times, the opponent was able to save Hoshiumi's tooling the block.
Those high and deep balls were always anticipated by the opponent, who could predict the angle and position of the deflection and move with extreme speed to save them.
In the current situation, Karasuno's primary source of scoring was actually Hoshiumi's tooling the block, but that was neutralized by Inarizaki's libero.
They still haven't found a way to restrict Hinata and Miya Osamu's double quick; with their stamina failing, trying to keep up with that kind of quick attack is nothing short of a pipe dream.
They are currently stuck, unable to advance or retreat, feeling as though there is a precipice beneath their feet everywhere they turn..
With Hinata's beautiful line shot from a back-row attack scoring, the scoreboard jumped to Inarizaki 25:21 Karasuno.
Nice play!
Nice play, Shoyo!
In the stands, Inamura Gen rested his chin on his hand, looking at the two sides competing on the court with considerable dissatisfaction: "I think the officials should give us an extra award."
Komori leaned forward curiously. "What?"
Inamura said seriously, "The championship maker award."
After two consecutive seasons, he felt like he was having a myocardial infarction; he didn't want to fail to achieve a three-peat in his final year of high school!
Amatori poked his head out from behind: "There's one more horror story, do you want to hear it?"
Inamura looked at this senior and finally nodded slowly, "I'll listen."
Nothing could be more terrifying than a back-to-back championship season!
Amatori said slowly, "Because we didn't take the championship or the runner-up spot during the entire year's competition cycle, we might not get a seed for this Haruko."
That means..
Inamura felt as if his vision was going black.
Amatori's voice sounded like a murmur from hell: "It's possible you'll run into these two in the second round."
Inamura Gen clutched his head and screamed, "Aaaaahhh—I don't want to hear that—!"
Iizuna-senpai said helplessly, "Don't scare him."
He reached out and patted the back of Inamura's chair, adding, "Don't worry, as long as there are suitable teams, the officials won't leave a seed spot vacant."
—Unless it's something absurd like the previous year's top three failing to advance, something that has actually happened before.
Iizuna-senpai continued to explain, "I think the officials will give us a seed, considering we were both runners-up."
But.. it would be great if Inarizaki and Karasuno could be in the same region.
Inamura felt a renewed sense of hope.
He turned his head toward Iizuna-senpai, as if he were looking at a god. "Iizuna-senpai.. please bless us—"
Iizuna-senpai fell silent for a moment, then raised a hand and pointed to himself.
The one who drew the worst luck during the New Year's lottery let out a soft question: "Me?"
The people from Itachiyama fell into silence.
The rotation chart for the Fourth Set had also been handed to the Head Referee, Oikawa Tooru, watching from the commentary booth, was slightly surprised after taking a look.
[Hmm? Are these two teams finally willing to adjust their starting lineups?]
Oh, I knew Miya Atsumu wouldn't make it..
Amatori heard Oikawa Tooru's voice faintly through the headphones and instantly perked up, looking toward the Coach's bench.
The voice in the headset vanished instantly. As far as he could see, Kito was talking to Oikawa Tooru in a frantic manner, was even holding Oikawa's headset in his hands.
Oikawa Tooru covered his mouth with his hand, looking as if he wanted to run away from the commentator's bench for a moment.
But in the end, he straightened up under the gaze of the opposing cameras, tidied his clothes, took his headphones back from Kito.
Ahem, we can see that both sides' players have returned to the court to confirm the rotation for the Fourth Set.
Compared to the previous rotation, there are obvious changes in both sides' positioning and personnel.
Oikawa Tooru looked completely serious, as if he hadn't been the one who just said those words.
Kito also decided to act as if nothing had happened and followed suit, saying, "Karasuno has adjusted from their original S1 formation to a rotation where Hoshiumi starts at Position 4, they have substituted out Hakuma Meisei."
[As for Inarizaki, they have swapped out the setter Miya Atsumu, with Kumagai taking over the setter position.]
[Karasuno's number 13, Coach Kaku, doesn't have many appearances; most of the time, he is playing as a substitute for Hakuma.]
As for Inarizaki, the substitute Kumagai has relatively more playing time; he has a record of appearing as a key player for scoring points in various major tournaments, he is a player skilled in Dual Wield.
Yamamoto added: "But Inarizaki has indeed had instances where Kumagai was substituted out immediately after his opening Serve, so this might also be due to considerations in that regard."
Oikawa Tooru subconsciously responded: 【After all, Miya Atsumu's serve quality has dropped significantly; he probably can't be expected to handle the task of creating an advantage during the opening.】
Kito glanced at him from the side.
But Oikawa Tooru was right, his words didn't carry any strong personal bias at first glance, so he said nothing.
Oikawa Tooru was about to head to the other side of the Earth, but he still had activities to attend in Japan.
Regardless of the reason, he did not want to lose his future career as a commentator because of Oikawa Tooru.
If he could do it all over again, he would never bring up Oikawa!!
Kito adjusted his mood, trying to steady his mindset.
Well, maybe Oikawa just simply doesn't get along with Inarizaki. I'll try to avoid him when taking on work next time..
Kumagai had already walked to the serving position.
The commentator was right; the most important reason Coach Kurosu chose to let him start this set was to allow him to gain an advantage through his serves during the opening.
And his individual situation at this moment could be described as being superior to his opponent in every aspect; there was no reason for him to play a bad ball.
Atsumu said that the jump float serve was very effective right now, but he wasn't prepared to listen to Miya Atsumu.
In Karasuno's case, rather than the weakness in receiving jump float serves caused by player substitutions, it was their overall decline in form that was more apparent.
In this situation, the easiest way to score was actually through an overwhelmingly powerful Power Serve.
Kumagai had great confidence in his own power, just as he had confidence in the answers he had filled in on his exam.
After all.. he was the champion of the Inarizaki Volleyball Club arm-wrestling competition.
The server, in peak condition and possessing a violent playstyle, delivered a heavy, direct blow to Takahashi.
The moment the ball hit him, Takahashi didn't even realize what had happened before he was knocked straight to the ground.
The whistle blew immediately after, Kumagai scored with a Serve.
[An unparalleled ACE Serve! Kumagai is unstoppable!]
Kumagai clenched his fist. "Alright!"
Hoshiumi's expression was grim; if they couldn't provide sufficient defensive feedback in a short amount of time.. they would likely be pulled into a terrifyingly large deficit by this server from Inarizaki.
Takahashi gave up on the second ball, diving to use his body as a cushion; although he couldn't control where the ball landed, at least he managed to keep it from flying wildly.
Tokura let out a grunt and quickly moved to cover the ball.
Hakuma can't play anymore.
Coach Aran had just checked Hakuma's condition, his muscles were quite tense. Furthermore, according to Hakuma, he could already feel soreness in his knees, which seemed to be caused by his high jumping frequency over the past two days.
Hakuma's weight itself prevents him from jumping at a high frequency; if this continues, he is very likely to suffer from cramps, a single fall could even result in patellar dislocation.
So, in this set, they chose to have Hoshiumi start in Position 4, placing the full responsibility for the team's offense on his shoulders.
He only needed to trust Hoshiumi and deliver the ball to the opponent's most comfortable hitting point.
Hoshiumi avoided the block at Position 4 and slammed down a line shot that hit the line.
Nishizawa, in the middle of the court, dove forward without hesitation, catching the ball with a side roll and delivering a stable, high toss.
"Beautiful." Coach Utsunomiya, who had been watching from the sidelines for a while, clapped his hands.
Coach Himegomiya looked very heartbroken: "Even Shoyo didn't tell me anything; is he keeping me at arm's length too—"
“You have to share the golden eggs when you get them!!”
Utsunomiya glanced at her twice, also appearing quite upset.
Although Ningshaqing's growth is very stable and he will certainly become a mainstay of Itachiyama in the future.. it is still more painful to watch an old rival collect golden eggs.
Especially this frequency.. it's just too high!
He was already quite proud of himself for picking up one or two every two or three years! Coach Kurosu felt like he wanted to produce several every single year!
Can he even keep up with them!!
Coach Utsunomiya pressed his hand against his heart.
On the court, Miya Osamu tossed the ball to Kumagai in the back row, who scored by hitting a spike into Position 2 under Hinata's cover.
A string of question marks floated above Hoshiumi's head after he failed his block.
No, what on earth are you guys playing!
As is well known, compared to the spikers, the setter position in Inarizaki is actually a position where one can slack off.
He thought Inarizaki was subbing in Kumagai for Miya Atsumu, but it turns out the one actually replacing Miya Atsumu was Miya Osamu?
Hinata gave Hoshiumi a big thumbs up.