Spring Nationals – Final Prefectural Qualifier – Day of the Championship Match
We’d arrived at the gymnasium where the match was being held, and honestly, I was surprised at the huge crowd that had gathered so early in the morning.
Yesterday was intense too, but today was on a whole other level. There were so many people it made you wonder where they all came from. And unless I’m imagining it, it’s not just local stations—some of the big national networks are here too.
“Asuka, is that normal?”
“All the prefectural finals are streamed online, so I guess that’s why the crowd’s big.”
As expected of Asuka—she really knows her volleyball.
“…Yuu-chan, don’t do anything weird just because you're on TV, okay?”
Come on, Hina-san. I’ve already been on TV a few times, you know?
I’m not gonna flash peace signs at the camera or anything.
…Now that I think about it, this morning Hina took extra care brushing my hair. I was the same as always, but she seemed really serious about doing her eyebrows and stuff...
Wait a sec—you’re the one doing something weird here!
“Tachibana! How you feeling?”
The sudden voice came from a woman who looked to be in her fifties but had a level of energy that didn’t match her age—it was Coach Tashiro, head coach of the All-Japan Women’s Volleyball team.
“Good morning. I’m feeling neither great nor terrible—just normal.”
“I see. So business as usual. That’s good. Playing without forcing things is important.”
“Um… Coach Tashiro, why are you here today?”
“I was asked to come. The two matches being played here today are being streamed, and they needed someone to provide commentary. …Sorry, Tachibana, but if I had to be pulled in for commentary, I’d have preferred Osaka or Tokyo…”
Osaka, of course, has the powerhouse Kinhouzan. As for Tokyo…
“Asuka, are there any strong girls’ teams in Tokyo?”
“Eh? Oh, yeah—there’s Ryuusenzan High. They’ve got five players who made the U-19 team. The middle blocker and their ace are especially good.”
Asuka, caught off guard, still gave a solid answer.
“Huh? But if they’re that strong, why haven’t they won?”
“…Since last year’s Spring Nationals through this year’s National Sports Festival, Ryuusenzan has only lost three official matches. All three were to Kinhouzan. And every time it went to a full set. You might not know this, Yuu-chan, but the last match at the National Sports Festival was incredible. If that amazing middle blocker I mentioned hadn’t gotten injured during the match, I think Tokyo would’ve taken the title.”
“She’s right. That middle blocker’s name is Tsuganezawa. I didn’t think much of her at first—just a typical tall and athletic player.
But she changed a lot between spring and the Sports Festival. I’m curious how much more she’s improved in the past two months. And I’ve also got my eye on Kinhouzan’s ace, who’d been in a bit of a slump.”
...
“But that’s not all. It’s not just Osaka and Tokyo—there are players here I’m looking forward to seeing. Of course, I mean you all.”
“…‘You all’? Not just Yuuri?”
“That’s right. Just so you know—I made the national team when I was 17. And there was someone who made it at 15. My term as head coach runs through the next Olympics in three years. You all still have plenty of chances. Maybe not right now, but a year from now, two years, three—show me the kind of play that’ll make me struggle to decide who to pick!”
“…Uh, is it really okay for the All-Japan coach to be this openly biased toward us?”
“Hahaha. I think you’re misunderstanding. I just told the Himesaki players the same thing: ‘If you play well, I’ll consider you for the national team.’ I have high hopes for both Himesaki and Matsubara Girls. Objectively, the ones with the most promise are Tachibana on your side and Okino and Tokumoto from Himesaki. But the others still have a chance. Make me excited today!”
Having said her piece, Coach Tashiro walked away.
“National team, huh…”
“Yuuri’s one thing, but the rest of us…”
“Actually, I think Reiko might have a shot!”
“Give me a break… not until I get better at receiving, at least…”
No, seriously—if she gets any better, my whole “we started at the same time” thing won’t mean anything anymore…
＝＝＝＝＝
“Saeki-sensei, looks like the girls’ match will start on time.”
Coach Uesugi relayed the message from the tournament committee.
I thought they might delay our match since the boys’ match ran long, but I guess not.
“Thank you, Uesugi-sensei. You all heard that, right? It’s almost time. You ready?”
““““““““YES!!””””””””
Under Coach Saeki’s lead, we stepped into the arena.
The moment we stepped out, the cheers started. Isn’t that a little much?
The crowd was still caught up in the excitement from the boys’ match that had just ended.
Youkou High, runners-up at Summer Inter-High, had narrowly lost in a full set to Himesaki.
We got to see a bit of it from the sidelines—boys’ volleyball really is something else.
The height and speed are just different.
But on the flip side, it’s a little rough around the edges. Kind of… unpolished.
…Honestly, it reminded me of our team’s style.
The Himesaki cheering section that stayed behind is now shouting for the girls to keep the momentum going.
It’s… a little hard to play like this.
Our own supporters are here too, but it’s not really an organized cheering squad—just individuals showing support—so we kind of lose out in terms of unity. But I guess it’s wrong to expect “winning” from people who came out purely out of kindness.
“If we win this match, we go to the Spring Nationals. But don’t think about that now. Just focus on playing like you always do. That’s what’ll lead to results.”
Before the match, Coach Saeki gave us those words. Then we headed to the court. Same starting lineup as last time, and once again, the serve goes to the opponent.
Here’s the court setup:
FL: Murai Reiko
FC: Maejima Mirai
FR: Tachibana Yuuri
BR: Nabekawa Kaori (Arimura Yukiko)
BC: Tachibana Hina
BL: Tohira Asuka
Net
---------------------
FL FC FR
BL BC BR
---------------------
End Line
Piiiiiip!
With a sharp whistle, the match began.
Compared to Inter-High, Himesaki has definitely improved their serving. Even players who don’t jump serve are putting a lot into their swings, so the serves themselves are fast—for girls, anyway.
And the first serve…
Hina!?
They're aiming at Hina!?
In general, setters don’t take serve-receive.
Obviously.
Since setters handle the second touch—to set the ball—it’s common practice for someone else to take the first touch on serve receive.
If the setter is in the back row, they usually move up right after the serve is hit.
(And of course, they can’t move ahead of the front row players before the serve.)
So, from the front row’s perspective, it’s annoying having a back-row setter dart in front of you to get into position. That’s why one common strategy is to aim the serve at the spot where the back-row setter will be moving forward.
So aiming at Hina, who’s currently in the back row, isn’t wrong. Normally, anyway.
But we use a two-setter system.
I don’t know how common that is, but for us, the rule is: “the back-row setter doesn’t have to force themselves forward.”
As planned, Hina takes the serve.
The ball is passed perfectly to the setter. We can go for a quick!
Mirai calls it—
“Left!”
“Center’s mine!”
I run in from the left, Reiko comes in from the center, both calling for the ball.
Well, to be honest, Reiko’s the one actually hitting this time. I’m just the decoy.
But Himesaki’s blockers don’t fall for it—they double up on Reiko!
…The block redirects her spike right into the libero’s path.
They send it back with a perfect pass to the setter and—wait!
Himesaki’s setter fakes a toss right up until the last moment, then sends over a second-touch attack!
Luckily Hina picks it up—but since she was the first to touch it, Mirai has to step in as setter again.
“Mine!”
“Mirai, one more!”
I come in from the left, Reiko from center—we both call for the ball.
This time, it’s my turn to spike.
I jump, scanning for a place to put the ball… and on Himesaki’s side, there are six defenders. No blockers.
…
…
…
Huh?
…
…
Why was there a block on Reiko’s spike…
…but not on mine?
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Point of View Shift
Himesaki High School Girls’ Volleyball Club – Coach
Noriko Akai’s Perspective
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Preconceptions can be frightening things.
Given the short experience of the Matsubara Girls’ High School volleyball players, there’s no doubt they possess real talent for the sport.
That’s why I didn’t underestimate them. I crafted our strategy with the mindset that we were facing players of national caliber.
And that… was the root of my mistake.
Matsubara’s number 6 has extraordinary jumping power. Considering her height, she should normally be spiking from about a meter lower, yet she hits the ball from a point higher than anyone else on the court.
On the flip side, that means “normally, the toss would be a full meter lower.”
Adjusting toss height depending on the spiker—
That’s no easy feat.
…If we’re talking about the kind of centimeter-level precision we usually expect from our own players, that is.
But if the goal is just to roughly adjust toss height by about 10 centimeters, even the players on our second squad could manage it on the spot. Of course, such rough tosses wouldn't cut it in serious matches, where aiming even a centimeter higher matters. You could get the spike off, but it wouldn't be effective in an actual game.
I imagine it's the same with the players from Youkou.
That’s why Minagawa-sensei, who leads Youkou High, didn’t realize it until the end. And neither did I, not until I watched the video twice.
Matsubara’s number 6, the younger Tachibana sister, can only execute a quick attack when the toss comes from her older sister, number 4.
Maejima, number 11, cannot toss at the height number 6 requires for an indirect delivery.
Her spikes are powerful.
The ideal approach is not to let her spike at all. But that’s nearly impossible.
The next best thing is to prevent her from doing those quick attacks she excels at. To do that, we just need to force the first touch to be taken by the older sister, number 4 Tachibana. If that happens, number 6 won’t be able to do a quick attack off of Maejima’s setup.
Maejima number 11 likely has natural ability too.
At the very least, she didn’t seem to be playing volleyball over the summer.
Because of work, I try to attend as many local girls’ junior high matches as I can, but I have no memory of seeing her in the past three years.
She might not be a complete beginner—perhaps she played in elementary school. Even so, volleyball isn’t a sport where you can make up for a three-year gap in just four months since summer.
And yet she’s able to toss quick attacks for Murai (number 3), Tohira (number 7), Nabekawa (number 10), and even Tachibana (number 4). Her setting ability is outstanding.
And this ability is part of what deceived me. If she can execute quick attacks for players A, B, C, and D, why wouldn’t she be able to do it for number 6?
After several rallies, not once does number 6 use a quick attack. As suspected, those quicks are limited to the Tachibana sisters.
Even so, all of Matsubara’s spikers—not just number 6—are powerful.
We want to assign at least two blockers to them whenever possible.
But only number 6’s spike is at such an unusually high point that we simply can’t block it. So instead, we opt not to block it at all.
If the opponent consistently uses open attacks (where the setter raises the ball high and the spiker hits it as it comes down), and if number 6 is only hitting in those situations, then we can deploy six receivers.
In all other cases, we can use two to three blockers and keep the rest on floor defense. But once they start using quick attacks, it becomes hard to judge the situation.
So shutting down those sister quicks doesn’t just neutralize the quick attack itself. Unless you know those quicks only work between the sisters, when an A-pass gets sent back to the setter, you might wrongly assume a quick is coming and hold off on blocking even for the other spikers—which would be a waste.
Conversely, if you set up blockers for the other spikers, then you can't switch to a six-receiver setup for number 6’s spike.
Which means you’re giving her a spike without any blockers—stress-free. And that gives the spiker momentum.
Minagawa-san and Youkou High were overwhelmed by points they could’ve prevented had they known the countermeasure. They were swept up in the momentum they couldn’t stop.
Then, what if we do stop that momentum that should have been there?
The answer is right there on the court.
They’re scoring points, but they can’t get into a rhythm.
And, heh.
Number 4, the older Tachibana sister, has clearly lost her spark after repeated targeted attacks and consecutive lost points. And Maejima, number 11, whose setups aren’t landing like usual, is visibly discouraged. Especially with a player like Maejima, who’s normally vocal and leads the team energetically—when she goes quiet, it hits team morale hard.
As with many ball games, volleyball has this thing called “momentum.”
If you control that flow, you seize the initiative.
Like other competitive sports, volleyball isn’t about the stronger team winning. It’s that the team that wins is the stronger one.
In my assessment, Matsubara Girls’ High is young and very momentum-driven. Their overall performance swings dramatically. If their true ability is a 10, then depending on momentum, they range anywhere from 6 to 13.
On the other hand, we—objectively—have a slight advantage in raw ability and overall strength. So, if we can simply suppress their performance to below 10—
Spring High Prefectural Final – Girls’ Division
Himesaki High School VS Matsubara Girls’ High School
Set 1: 25–16
As you can see.
It’s possible to put up a score gap far greater than the actual difference in skill.
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