91 Back Row
"Watch for the block out again!!"
The ball once again flew off one of the blocks that Karasuno had set up and their back row started to dive after the ball that was hit by Takeru.
Nishinoya had managed to keep the ball alive but they were unable to do anything with it since it was in an unfavorable location.
Ukai who had his fingers interlocked with each other, placed it near his mouth for support as he watched Karasuno play.
"What do you think Ukai-san?" Takeda who was right beside him, wanted to know his thoughts so far as he was also watching them play.
"Well from seeing the plays Wakutani is doing, it is obvious that they have been studying how our key players on the team have been playing."
"Yeah I noticed it from the blocking formation they did when Watanabe went up to hit the ball."
"There is also their middle blocker who has been strictly marking Hinata from the middle."
Ukai watched how Hinata ran up straight through the middle, getting Kageyama to use him and was given a minus tempo set. Hinata watched the ball that sped up towards him and hit away from the blocker that was marking him.
"But so far our players have been faring well against the plans they had made for us."
Watching how Hinata was able to narrowly hit by the arms of the blockers in front of him and remembering how Haruto was still able to power through his cross, Ukai still felt the need to stay on his toes.
"Damn.. I felt it go just by my arms too.."
"Don't worry, you almost had it! You will be able to get the ball perfectly the next time he hits and block it straight down."
The middle who was marking Hinata cheered up slightly when Takeru came and encouraged him with some words.
Hinata who was nearby, felt his face scrunch up when he heard Takeru's words.
"Calm down, it's just a small way of provoking you."
"Geh…"
Haruto spoke calmly as he noticed how Takeru was subtly glancing at Hinata when he said those words and thought that it was impressive that he was trying to use words to get into Hinata's mind.
He glanced at the points so far and saw how the point difference was not as prominent as it was with Johzenji with it being [18-16]. They were currently up but he knew that if they slacked, Wakutani would definitely use this chance to chip points off them.
"Daichi, give us a nice serve."
"Got it."
Daichi who held a ball in his hands, looked on the other side of the court and saw the places where he could place the ball with his serve. Finding where he wanted to hit, he waited for the ref to start him off.
*Tweet
Hearing the whistle, Daichi bounced the ball a few times before throwing it up in the air and serving it towards the empty space where the setter on the other team would leave behind when he moves to switch with another player.
"He really placed it in a difficult spot."
Takeru mumbled under his breath as he saw his team dive for the ball that just barely passed by the net and arrived at a bad spot.
They had managed to pick the ball up and kept it alive but were unable to do anything with it so they had to pass it back over.
"Free ball!!"
Haruto yelled out once he saw that they were just going to pass the ball back over and calmly passed the ball upwards for them to use.
'Hmm… they seem to have stuck to the plan of marking Hinata in the middle.' Kageyama thought as he glanced at the player who was watching Hinata closely as he prepared to jump up whenever he went to hit.
'So that should leave the middle a bit vulnerable once he commits to Hinata…'
Kageyama sent a message to Hinata with a single look and he seemed to have gotten the message as he started to run his approach.
Instead of shaking off the blocker by jumping sideways or running across the net, Hinata quickly ran straight down the middle and jumped right in front of the blocker.
'I know he's coming but he's fast.'
He was taken slightly off guard as Hinata speed surprised him and decided to jump to follow with their plan of marking him.
'Their number 13 is staying far in the back so he's probably just covering for their number 10 when he goes up to hit.' Takeru thought in his head as he noticed Haruto just looking at the ball that went to Kageyama.
Wakutani then watched as their middle blocker went up and their back row got into position to get Hinata's spike that would come in either direction.
They watched how the fast minus tempo came towards his peak and got on their toes to see where it would go. But they stopped when they suddenly saw a figure come behind Hinata's left shoulder.
The minus tempo set just barely missed Hinata's fingertips and instead came into the palm of Haruto who did a good job of letting Hinata get the pressure while he stayed low in the back row.
"How did he come by him so fast?'
Takeru cursed in his head when he tried his best to move backwards to adjust his positions to get Haruto's spike.
Haruto had noticed Takeru staring at him throughout his time in the back row so he decided to start moving to look like he was just covering for the people at the net.
But once he saw the attention was off him for a quick second, Haruto then decided to run his approach.
'He seems to subconsciously pay more attention to the front row when it comes to attacking despite knowing that it's very possible for us to hit from the back.'
Haruto took note of this small hole in Takeru's leadership when it came to directing his team's defense and decided to use it to his advantage.
With the minus tempo coming his way he saw how the middle attempted to jump again and leaned his arms towards Haruto's direction.
He loaded up his arm and struck the ball towards the left corner where there were fewer people. The ball quickly dipped due to the topspin Haruto placed on the ball with the snap of his wrist and it headed towards the corner.
Wakutani who watched the ball go to that corner did their best to get a touch on it and were successful with how their libero was able to keep it up but the direction was going nowhere.
They ran and dove for the ball trying their best to keep it alive and Takeru managed to swing his arms backwards, letting it go towards Karasuno's side.
"Out!"
They clenched their jaws when they heard Haruto's loud voice as he chased after the ball and watched how he let it drop. The players from Wakutani all turned towards the linemen to see what was the call.
*Swish~
The person standing at the corner of the court raised the flag in his hands towards the sky and looked towards the ref to show his call. The ref nodded and raised his arms towards Karasuno's side giving them a point.
"You've been doing really well when it comes to back row attacking for the past few games."
"I know right. He's been doing all these cool tricks from the back row now. Should I call you a backrow specialist now?"
"What the hell are you even saying?.. And please don't give me that type of nickname."
Haruto cringed when he heard the nickname Hinata tried suggesting and decided to ignore him when Hinata tried telling him that it was a good one.
The game continued to go on and due to the increasing point difference, Karasuno was able to use that momentum to close up the first set.
"Azumane-san."
Kageyama called out when he saw Asahi getting ready to hit and decided to use him, noticing the small block that would come his way. Asahi swung the ball and it slammed into the block and rolled itself down, getting a point for them.
*Tweet~
"Nice Asahi!!"
"That was a great swing."
That point had given them the chance to finally close up the first set with it being [25-23]. At the end, Wakutani had tried their best to flip the lead around but the point difference that grew before reaching the 20s was a hard one to beat.
Both teams went to their benches and refueled their liquids as they were sweating from chasing around the ball and majority being from Takeru who kept on using their blocks to score points.
"Have you gotten used to how he hits now?"
"I have an idea now but I need to test it in the next set."
Haruto who was wiping his face asked Tsukishima who was beside him and nodded his head as he also got a good feel on how to block Takeru now.
"I also feel like trying this one other thing I came up with, when I noticed how his eyes wandered when he went up to hit."
Haruto chuckled deeply as he felt like this would be a fun play to do and Takeru who was on the other side felt cold sweat drip down his back, feeling like he was about to face a big dilemma.
***
Classes are starting up for me so I will probably post 2-3 chapters a week or more depending on how I feel since I would like some sort of break from studying by writing some chapters. Anyways I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.
