The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"OH!" Hirano who had never shown any excessive emotion before suddenly roared, high-fiving Riku who gave him the pass. "GOOD PASS!"

Of course, as the one who always lightened up the mood, Riku also shared the same excitement. "You too, Senpai! That is such a monstrous attack!"

While all of the Tsunemori's supporters were still drowned in celebration, most of the people inside the building were still confused about what was going on. Hirano was never Tsunemori's first choice in offense, after all. So, even though they knew Riku could be tricky, for him to go to the middle blocker to start the game was something beyond their expectation.

However, this was what exactly Akira asked Riku. The blonde boy could still remember what his uncle said during the intermission before.

– A flashback –

"To bring out their best potential?" Riku repeated his uncle's words as if those were the strangest things coming out of the old man's mouth.

"Yeah, bring the best potential out of them." Akira nodded in confirmation. The other players also paid attention to the conversation, knowing full well that this would be important for the second set. "Okay, I know you don't understand it, so let me explain in the simplest way. Before this, your thought process for setting up an attack always revolved around two things, first to find who among your teammates has the best position, and how would you trick the opponent to help your teammates have a good chance to score."

"Is that how any setter should do?" Riku asked, still pretty confused.

"Well, yeah, that is what an ordinary setter does." Akira said, emphasizing the word 'Ordinary'. "However, for those first-class setters, they also think about how to bring the best out of their teammates. For example, you are always sending a quick pass to the middle for Hirano, and there is nothing wrong with it since Hirano always worked in that area and he is comfortable with that kind of method. However, a good setter would think, Hirano has a really good jump, and adding with his height, his vertical reach will be crazy, and if he could take it as his advantage in offense, the team would improve by a factor."

This time, not only Riku, but also everyone had their eyes widened in realization.

"Another example is Koji." The ace perked up instantly when he heard his name was mentioned, wondering what kind of potential the coach thought about him. "While his block-out trick is good, he is trying too much to imitate Noriyuki by challenging the opponent's best blockers head-on, and you fall into the thought that this is his best way to attack. Have you ever thought that he could do better as a second attacker? It would be good if you could set up a bait so that he could find an open position. After all, it is clear that Koji is uncomfortable facing the line of blockers in front of him."

Koji had to hide his wince when he heard the name of the team's former ace was called. Of course, he would imitate Noriyuki a lot. That was where he learned how to be the ace, to shoulder the burden and open the way for his teammates when they were in a deadlock. However, as time went by, it seemed that even he knew he wasn't suitable for that role.

"So, what I mean is, I know you always consider your teammates' most comfortable way to attack before sending the ball, but try to think of a way to bring the potential out of them. Don't worry about them being uncomfortable, because that is the point! They will not be able to learn anything if you keep feeding them up with a silver spoon! You need to make them struggle a bit so that they can improve!"

Yuki had a sweat dropped on his face when he heard this. That was a weird thing to say to the players in the middle of the game. However, Riku himself got this as he was thinking with a solemn gaze for a moment. In the end, he just nodded firmly at the coach before saying, "Okay, let me try this."

– End of the flashback –

The first attack of the set by Hirano was Riku's first attempt to bring the best potential out of his teammates, and Yuki was a bit surprised to see how well it worked. He knew that Hirano had a crazy vertical jump, and with the height he had, the middle blocker took advantage of it all to be the biggest menace on the front line. However, none of them thought of using it as a weapon to attack the opponent like this.

'This just shows that we still have a lot of things to learn in this sport.' He murmured lowly.

Right now, he was back on the service line, and all of the Kikugawa High tensed immediately when they saw him warming up for the next time he served. It seemed that they still had the memory of being dominated by his serve earlier at the beginning of the first set when he knocked down six serves in a row.

'Well, a reasonable fear, but that won't stop me from their defense.'

This defense didn't come from nothing, but from a reasonable observation Yuki had during the first set. He noticed that whenever he was on the service line, Kikugawa High would try their best to make three spots look like it was open, the spot where Kaito, Yusuke, and Tachibana were in. It seemed they had already simulated the same scenario with a lot of formations before this game, and they believed that those three were the best players to handle his serve.

However, this opened up another hole in the can. The other position like where Suzuki, Ao, and Ayane were standing had no one to cover it up. So, it was pretty easy for him to change his target right now.

Thud!

Tachibana was surprised when he saw the ball was coming straight to his direction. Well, not that surprised, since the team arranged so that it would go either to him or the other two players. No, what caught him off guard was that it was such an ordinary serve that would be easy for any novice player to receive.

However, as he was about to get the ball, his feet suddenly froze, not allowing him to move. It was just a split second, but that short time was enough to let the ball fall in front of the place where he stood. As a result, Tachibana could only watch as the ball fell slowly in front of him, giving the second point to Tsunemori High while also the first point from Yuki's service.

Tsunemori High 2 (0) – (1) 0 Kikugawa High