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Spring High School Volleyball – Prefectural Final Qualifiers, Girls’ Finals
Himesaki High School Girls’ Volleyball Club
POV: Captain Saori Nishimura
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The second set begins with the opponent’s serve.
And that serve comes from number 6, the ace of Matsubara Girls’ High. She might not just be the strongest server among high school girls—or even among all high school students—she could honestly be one of the strongest servers in all of humanity.
Matsubara’s signature pattern is to have her serve come around once and rack up 5 to 6 points in one go. Looking back, we really did well to hold her to just one service ace in the first set.
Now, that number 6 moves into her usual routine.
First, she takes the ball, steps six big paces from the end line outward, then turns to face the court. She bounces the ball twice like a rubber ball, takes a deep breath, and waits for the whistle.
Once the whistle blows, she tosses the ball on her second step, then jumps with both feet on her fifth step. And then—
Anyone who’s played volleyball will know—serves usually fly parallel to the ground, or at most arc up and come down from the opposing side. But her serve, thanks to the high point of contact, feels like it drops down from above.
It’s like a lightning strike. One of my teammates managed to receive it, but the ball still flew out of bounds.
We somehow chased it down, but we couldn’t even get a proper second touch. If we send back a slow, easy ball now, they’ll just spike it right back at us.
Then—!
“Captain! Last one!”
“Nishimura-san! Please!”
With the final touch entrusted to me, I pushed the ball toward number 4, one of the twin setters—the older Tachibana sister.
“Tch…”
It was just a simple, harmless ball, but she clearly didn’t like it.
I get it. I’m a setter too. Being forced into a first touch like that is really annoying.
In Matsubara’s case, when this happens, they flexibly shift roles—the other setter, who would normally be a spiker in the front row, takes over as the setter. True to form, number 4 Tachibana calmly turned my ball into a clean high A-pass and sent it to the setter’s spot.
Normally, this would set up Matsubara’s three-spiker formation, which they take pride in. But with number 4 Tachibana, the actual setter, handling the first touch, the one making the set should be number 11 Maejima, who had been playing as a right-side spiker. That means they won’t be attacking from the right.
Matsubara’s current front row has number 7 Tohira on the left, and number 3 Murai in the center. Maybe they’ll go for a second-touch attack off that clean A-pass?
Come at us from wherever you want!
But—
The ball came flying from the right.
…Huh?????
No way. That’s not possible.
No, wait—
It is possible.
That was a standard broad attack—where the middle blocker hits not from center, but from the right side.
Calling it “standard” doesn’t really do it justice. The execution was so polished—it wasn’t some desperate backup plan.
But that’s exactly why it makes no sense.
Broad attacks are usually used when the setter is in the front row and you only have two front-row spikers—so you exploit the open right side. But Matsubara uses a two-setter system. That means they always have three front-row spikers. There’s no need to use a broad attack—there’s already a spiker on the right. So why even bother practicing that kind of play?
Or rather, there are way more important things to practice instead. Sure, like now, they won’t always have three spikers up front—but still. If you’ve got three good spikers available most of the time, there’s no reason to prioritize training for broad attacks. Especially when your right-side spiker is already powerful.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one thinking that. Nobody anticipated number 3 Murai’s broad attack. No one reacted in time. The ball dropped.
0–1.
We gave up the first point. But more than that—we were rattled.
“Get your heads on straight! The match isn’t over!”
Coach Akai’s voice snapped me out of it. Right, it’s still going.
“Oi, Yuuri! If it’s something you’ve practiced, I don’t mind you doing it, even without my permission!”
That was the opposing coach, shouting something ominous toward number 6, the younger Tachibana sister.
What in the world…?
Now number 6 Tachibana steps into her serve routine again. The whistle sounds.
She tosses the ball on her second step—
Wait, that toss looked a little off?
Could that be a mis-toss?
Other than that, her approach looked the same. On her fifth step, she jumped—
!!
Her form was slightly different!
This is a jump floater serve!
The serve flew toward me. It was faster than any floater I’ve ever seen, but still noticeably slower than her spike serve. This, I could handle with an underhand receive—
Thud
Yeah. I know.
Floater serves don’t spin, so they curve unpredictably right before you receive them. That’s why you’re usually supposed to take them with an overhand.
But I was preparing for her spike serve, so I was mentally set on an underhand receive. And even though it’s slower than a spike, it’s still much faster than a typical girl’s serve. No way I could react perfectly on the first try. I ended up trying to take it underhand anyway.
The ball hit my arms and dropped straight to the floor.
0–2.
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POV Change
Himesaki High School Girls’ Volleyball Club – Head Coach
Noriko Akai’s Perspective
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In the world of shogi, it’s said that professional players can read dozens of moves ahead.
However, that’s only because both players know the standard moves.
That’s why when playing with an elementary school student who knows nothing, even a pro can be caught off guard.
I’m not so presumptuous as to think I know volleyball as deeply as a pro shogi player knows their game, but it’s true that I’m flustered by attacks that break from conventional patterns.
In this second set, where it was crucial to break the opponent’s will by scoring first and keeping the lead, we instead gave up five consecutive points from the start.
The main reason is that Tachibana (younger sister), No. 6, is alternating between spike serves and floater serves.
That switching is troublesome—but it just doesn’t add up.
She already possesses that brutal spike serve. There’s no real reason for her to go out of her way to learn the weaker floater serve now.
Sure, we lost a few points at first from the confusion, but we’ve already adapted.
It’s not something we can receive perfectly every time, but it’s still easier to handle than the spike serve.
Of course, we’ll need to defend assuming she’ll keep switching from now on, and I do think the way her form stays consistent until the moment of contact is a result of solid training, but...
Now that the trick’s been revealed, honestly, I’d rather she just keep using the floater serve. Its impact is limited to gaining a few points in this second set. That’s how good her spike serve is—there’s no real need to be a two-trick server.
Another question is that first point they took with the broad attack by Maejima No. 11 and Murai No. 3.
Even with a three-spiker front row, it’s good to prepare for emergencies by practicing the broad. But shouldn’t that have been a much lower priority?
For setters, the broad attack is harder to execute than an A or B quick. It’s not something you can just pull off without a fair amount of training.
If, instead of spending time practicing floater serves and broad attacks, Tachibana (younger) and Maejima had focused on combination attacks between the two of them, we might’ve struggled a lot more in the first set.
(...Could it be that Tachibana (younger) and Maejima don’t get along very well?)
Not an impossible thought. I’ve been a woman for over sixty years—when three women gather, a faction forms. Maybe they argued over how to set the ball...
(But would they really let something so petty affect a match? If I were their coach, I wouldn’t allow a simple grudge to stop them from practicing sets...
Then again, why didn’t they show this in earlier matches? Were they saving it as a trump card for the Spring Tournament? If that’s the case, they’ve certainly underestimated us...
No, that’s not it. Maybe they had been preparing it as a trump card specifically for us, but couldn’t perfect it in practice—so this is the first time they’re using it. Is that the truth????)
The giant star of Japan’s high school girls’ volleyball world, Akai Noriko.
Because of her wealth of experience and broad insight—
She doesn’t know. She hasn’t noticed.
After being repeatedly targeted by broad attacks in a practice match against Tamaki Commercial...
“That looked really cool—let’s try it too!”
...Maejima No. 11 and Murai No. 3 began practicing broad attacks for that rather shallow reason.
When Tachibana (older) was struggling to master her new floater serve, her younger sister, completely missing the mood, said:
“Hina-nee’s floater serve doesn’t curve at all compared to Eri-senpai’s or Mana’s.”
Which sparked the response:
“Then you try it, Yuu-chan! It’s hard, you know!”
From there, the sisters got into a bit of a squabble—and since then, during serve practice, not just Hina but also Yuuri has been practicing jump floaters.
For the record, none of this happened in front of their teachers or coaches.
Naturally. Just as Coach Akai suspects, there are plenty of higher-priority things they should be working on.
And the motivations? Looking cool, or a minor spat.
Of course they couldn’t tell anyone.
And of course they never used those moves in actual matches—after all, they never showed those techniques during practice sessions either. There’s no way the coaches could’ve incorporated them into strategy.
But that's where teachers and coaches shine.
Coach Saeki and Coach Uesugi were fully aware that their students were secretly practicing silly new tricks behind their backs.
They knew, but—
“When I was in high school, I used to do unsanctioned practice behind the teachers’ backs too. If it’s not dangerous, I say let it slide...”
“Same here. Back when I played baseball, I’d sneak in some pitching practice when the coach wasn’t around. Can’t have a training regime so tight it stifles the players.”
“Exactly. Let’s just overlook it this time.”
And so, Coach Akai and the Himesaki players, never imagining that such off-the-record, spur-of-the-moment techniques would appear in a match, are thrown off by these unexpected attacks and lose the lead...
Himesaki High School vs. Matsubara Girls’ High School
Second Set
12–16
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