Matsuko’s school festival was held on a Saturday. Then, starting the following Monday, an early cold wave swept across Japan.
It was as cold as late December.
There are very few things that make me feel glad I turned into a girl, but one of those rare positives is being able to shamelessly use Hina as a human hot water bottle on chilly nights.
That brings us to the second Saturday of November. Today marks our first official match since June—the second round of the prefectural qualifiers for Spring High.
Now that we’re here, I’d like to give a bit of an explanation about the Spring High prefectural qualifiers.
Spring High School Volleyball, commonly known as Spring High, officially the All-Japan High School Volleyball Championship, is an invitational tournament.
The structure of the prefectural qualifiers varies slightly depending on the region, but in principle, schools that performed well in that year’s Inter-High prefectural qualifiers are given preferential treatment.
That holds true in our prefecture as well.
To be specific, schools that made it to the Best 8 or better in the Inter-High prefectural qualifiers are exempt from the first round and begin from the second. The first round of Spring High, which we were exempted from, was held from late August through September, and a total of sixteen schools advanced. In the second round held in November, the treatment also differs based on Inter-High results.
The second round is divided into Blocks A through D, and each block holds a four-team knockout tournament. Only the winner of each block proceeds to the third round (final qualifier). Schools that made it to the Best 4 or better in the Inter-High prefectural qualifiers are each placed in separate blocks to ensure they don’t face each other before the third round.
Here’s how the blocks are arranged:
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Block A: Himesaki High School (1st place, Inter-High Prefectural Qualifiers)
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Block B: Youkou High School (2nd place)
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Block C: Matsubara Girls’ High School (3rd place)
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Block D: Touzuryou High School (4th place)
Next, schools like Tamaki Commercial High, which made it to the Best 8 in the Inter-High, are each assigned to one of the four blocks by lottery. And even the tournament brackets in each block are full of favoritism.
First, teams like us who made it to the Best 4 are placed on the far right of the bracket. Teams like Tamaki Commercial that made it to the Best 8 are placed on the far left.
The two middle spots in each of the four blocks—a total of eight spots—are filled by the teams that made it through the first round.
See what’s happening here?
In other words, to advance past the second round, teams that cleared the first round have to beat both a Best 8 and a Best 4 school from the Inter-High.
On the other hand, for us, our first match is against a team from the first round, and our second is against a team that made it to the Best 8.
This same kind of favoritism carries over to the third round as well.
The third round is another knockout tournament between the four block winners, and the matchups are pre-determined.
Assuming the teams that won their blocks are the same ones who made the Best 4 in the Inter-High, the matchups look like this:
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Match 1: Himesaki High (1st) vs Touzuryou High (4th)
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Match 2: Youkou High (2nd) vs Matsubara Girls’ High (3rd)
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Match 3 (Final): Winners of Matches 1 and 2
It’s almost refreshing how openly the teams that made nationals at the Inter-High are favored.
That said, just because a school did well at the Inter-High doesn’t mean they’ll dominate Spring High too.
Some schools, like ours, lost their third-year players and saw their overall strength decline. Conversely, there are schools where the first-years, who were closer to middle schoolers in June, now have high school-level stamina and have become stronger. Besides, match results often depend on timing and luck—unexpected teams can break through.
So that’s the gist of the second round of the Spring High prefectural qualifiers. This time, instead of our usual travel routine, we got to the venue by microbus, thanks to Uesugi-sensei arranging one from the school.
Of course, balls and other equipment were also transported on the bus. With our small team, each person had to carry more equipment, but now we don’t have to haul big bags around on trains or regular buses anymore.
And that’s not all—
“Sensei! We can carry our own gear, you know!”
“Uesugi-sensei, we can’t let a teacher carry equipment!”
“Just let me carry this much. Before being teacher and students, we’re men and women. I’m not old enough yet to make little girls like you carry all the heavy stuff.”
Uesugi-sensei voluntarily carried the heaviest gear all the way to the venue.
Well, he’s probably still got more physical strength than literal young girls like us. I wouldn’t exactly call thirty ‘young’ anymore, though!
Even so...
“Is it just me, or are there a lot of people here today?”
“Oh, I thought the same.”
“So it’s not just me? I figured maybe this was normal for high school volleyball events, but I guess it’s not?”
It feels like there are as many people here as for the Inter-High finals—or maybe even more. Why is that? I get that Spring High is a big deal in high school volleyball, so it makes sense that it would draw a crowd. But let’s be honest—today’s event is just a regional qualifier...
“Whoa, look! Tokuchi, Genshuin, even Ritsunan Daiichi are here!”
“Asuka, are you casting a spell or something?”
“Not spells—those are names of powerhouse schools in girls’ volleyball.”
“Yuki, since when did you turn into a volleyball geek like Asuka?”
“Other way around. I’m not a geek. Those schools are so well-known that anyone who’s played even a little volleyball would recognize them. But they’re all from other prefectures. Why are they here?”
“—Probably scouting us,”
The voice came from Saeki-sensei, our advisor. She had arrived at the venue earlier than us to handle the event paperwork.
“On my way in, a TV station even asked for an interview. They want to speak with us after today’s match. Looks like everyone’s curious about Yuuri.”
According to Saeki-sensei, thanks to that brief appearance at the All-Japan training camp in August and the pickup beach volleyball match, I’ve become more well-known in volleyball circles than I thought.
“If Yuuri’s in the spotlight, the whole team is, too. Our playstyle is going to be observed and studied. At the Inter-High qualifiers in summer, we were the ones doing the studying. Now we’re the ones being studied.”
“...So that means we’ll have to play differently than we have before?”
“No, not necessarily. I saw this coming and thought of a few things... but to be honest, there’s no real way to prepare for Yuuri’s spikes. Nobody can block them, and they’re tough to receive, too.
More than that, being watched can throw off our defense. Like I always say—if we haven’t practiced it, we can’t suddenly pull it off in a real match. Let’s just stay calm and play our game.”
Hmm...
So basically, “Matsubara Girls is getting a lot of attention, but don’t worry—just play like we always do,” huh?
Alright then. Let’s stay calm and go fight our usual fight.
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