"Nice serve, Asahi!" the Karasuno players shouted, and then he jumped and served the ball towards Date Tech's court.
"Got it," Fukiage said calmly while bending his knees to receive the ball and directing the pass to Moniwa.
"Nice receive!" said Moniwa while watching the ball come his way, and then he tried to set it to Aone in the middle of the net. After jumping, Aone noticed a block formed by Hinata and Tsukishima appear in front of him. When his jump reached its peak, Aone tried to spike the ball down through Karasuno's block.
"Clang!" the sound of Aone's spike hitting Hinata and Tsukishima's block echoed through the gymnasium as the ball immediately returned to Date Tech's side of the court.
"That's what I said! These two are just as good as Date Tech's block; in fact, they're even taller. Now we'll see if they're as good at reading blocks!" Irihata observed.
"How interesting! We'll find out as the game progresses!" Mizoguchi affirmed.
"NICE BLOCK!" Tanaka shouted.
"SHOW THEM THAT IF THEY'RE THE IRON WALL, WE'LL BE THE STEEL WALL!" Nishinoya shouted confidently while pointing his thumb at his chest, showing off from the bench.
"That's not a bad name? Could it be that you're improving your naming abilities, Noya-san?" said Tanaka.
"Hehe, finally you're appreciating my skill!" said Nishinoya, standing triumphantly with his hands on his hips.
"It really isn't bad!" said Hinata.
"Never say that again!" said Tsukishima, visibly irritated by Nishinoya's nickname.
"Now you just need to rename all your other skills! HAHAHA," said Tanaka, laughing and pointing at Nishinoya.
"HEY!" Nishinoya protested.
"Hey, guys! Stop fooling around! Nothing's won yet; we can't let this match slip through our fingers!" Daichi scolded.
"Sorry!... Asahi, Nice Serve!" Tanaka shouted next.
Asahi serves again, but this time he manages to put more power into it, and the ball goes at high speed towards Sasaya, who tries to prepare for the receive.
"I GOT IT... DAMN! COVER ME!" Sasaya shouted when Asahi's serve hit his wrists and flew towards Obara.
"Get ready, Aone!" said Obara while moving towards the ball and making an underhand pass to Aone, who jumped and again noticed Karasuno's defense movement, which now presented a triple block where Daichi managed to join them in time.
"Clang!" Once again, Aone can be seen being blocked, this time after attempting to spike, the ball ended up hitting Tsukishima's hands, who skillfully managed to flex his hands to direct the ball to Date Tech's court floor.
"Look at that, you idiots! It's Karasuno's Steel Wall!" Nishinoya shouted from the bench, making Tsukishima look in his direction with a death glare.
"Nice serve, Asahi-san," Hinata praised.
"Thank you very much!" Asahi thanked while running his hand behind his head.
"Wow! The combined block between number ten and number eleven looks really strong too!" said someone in the crowd.
"The short guy on the bench called it the steel wall, Haha!" another person responded, laughing.
"That's it! Our blocks are working!" Ukai got excited.
"Well, you knew that putting Hinata as a wing spiker would make this blocking duo with Tsukishima inevitable," Takeda observed.
"Yeah... the duo with Asahi isn't bad either, it just works with a different dynamic more focused on attacking, but it's not like Asahi is short or doesn't know how to block," said Ukai while hearing Date Tech's coach call for a timeout.
"Everyone! We're behind now but that doesn't mean we need to panic. The main problem right now is the opponent's block that's managing to block us easily," said Oiwake.
"..." Aone can be seen slightly dejected after being blocked twice consecutively.
"They still have difficulties scoring against our block, so we just need to improve our attack, and for that, I'll need you to do some feints to make it harder to read the block, especially you Moniwa, can you do it?" asked Oiwake.
"I'll try!" Moniwa responded.
On Karasuno's bench:
"You're doing well but remember that nothing is guaranteed until the end of the match, and I feel they're planning something, so be prepared for anything!"
After the match resumed, Date Tech's game plan soon started to work. Moniwa did a good job using eye feints, and Obara started playing as a kind of decoy running around the court and jumping for every attack. The plan worked for a few consecutive attacks until Karasuno's block managed to successfully read an attack, and finally, it was Hinata's turn to serve.
8-5 Karasuno
"Now it's time, folks! Karasuno's number ten is going to serve, it's always fun to watch!" said someone in the stands.
"How many points in a row will it be? I bet three!" said another guy.
"Alright! Let's go with this!" Hinata thought while performing his big jump and hitting the ball with all his strength as his cheeks could be seen releasing all the air he had breathed in.
"I can do it!" thought Sakunami, Date Tech's libero.
"Boom!" a sound like an explosion could be heard in the gymnasium when the ball exploded off the libero's wrists and flew through the air.
"Nice serve!" Sugawara shouted from the bench.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The same thing happens two more times in a row until Hinata makes the same serve towards the libero.
"THIS TIME I'LL GET IT!" said Sakunami.
"Boom!" Again the ball explodes off his arms, but this time number thirteen falls backward while managing to keep the ball in play.
"Nice receive!" said Moniwa while deciding to set to Futakuchi who was in position four, who jumps and spikes.
"Crack!" Futakuchi's spike goes over Tanaka and Kageyama's block and hits Karasuno's court floor.
After some time with both teams facing each other, the score showed 24-16.
"Let's stop this one!" Daichi shouted while getting into receiving position.
"Yes!" Everyone shouted in unison.
Next, Kamasaki serves towards Karasuno's court.
"THIS ONE'S MINE!" Daichi shouted while directing the pass to Kageyama, who decides to set to Hinata in position four on his left.
After jumping, Hinata could observe Date Tech's triple block in front of him.
"You weren't expecting this!" Hinata thought while letting the ball pass through his right hand and making a kind of over-the-line attack with his left hand, slamming the ball to the floor and securing the first set victory for Karasuno at 25-16.