Our team arrived at the Matsushima B&G Marine Center.
Miyagi Prefectural Middle School Tournament consists of 64 teams. There will be only 3 rounds if a team wins all the matches or else the team gets eliminated. Once the team wins all the beginning 3 rounds, they advance to Quarter-finals, if they win, they advance to Semi-finals and finally, if they win the Semi-finals, they advance to the Finals.
Kirito's team Izumitate Junior High first opponent is Shichigahama Middle School. They were neighboring school from the same district.
Kirito's team was scheduled for the opening game.
The referee's whistle echoed soundly throughout the gym, signaling the start of match.
Izumitate's Lineup:
Front row: Outside Hitter Kirito Yagami, Middle Blocker Kira Izumi, Outside Hitter Haruto Suzuki
Back row: Outside Hitter Yuki Takahashi, Middle Blocker Ren Ito(Libero Kenji Yamada), Setter Sato Kaito
Shichigahama served first.
Shichigahama's Setter Naoki aimed at Ren Ito, Ren received the ball albeit not cleanly, sending it to Sato. Sato looked at Kirito and nodded at him.
Kirito upon given signal, approached from left side of the court and ran to meet the ball.
The ball was set high but a little slow.
*screech*
Kirito jumped with all his might and when in air, he saw that his arms and hands were above the block and hit the ball with full force.
BOOM!
"Spike over the block!"
The ball landed at the back row of the opponent's team and scored cleanly.
[Izumitate 1- 0 Shichigahama]
Yes! Kirito clenched his fist. His first point.
"Don't worry, we'll take the next point!". Shichigahama's captain reassured.
All players of Shichigahama nodded.
Ren Ito did a basic serve. The opponent received it cleanly and passed it to their setter. The setter then set the ball to their ace, Rina Mori.
Rina Mori performed a textbook approach and hit the ball.
But a pair of hands suddenly appeared right infront of him. Kirito had followed their ace during the approach and successfully countered their attack.
Smack!
The ball deflected back into the Shichigaham's court but their libero picked it up, but put a lot of force into it which got returned back to Kirito's side.
Yuki Takahashi seeing the ball being returned, ran and spiked the ball back to opponent side and scored a point.
[Izumitate 2- 0 Shichigahama]
Every player from Shichigaham was frustrated. This point would have been theirs's if not for that mistake.
"Don't mind, Don't mind!" Their captain said calmly.
But beneath that facade a slow crack was building up. Slowly but surely.
Kirito gazed back to Shichigaham side and could feel the atmosphere being favored towards his team.
Now, Sato stepped up and served.
Boom!
The ball landed into opponent's back row between their libero and spiker. For a moment both froze. But the libero shouted "My ball". He cleanly passed it to the setter and the setter once again set it to their ace, Rin Mori.
Rin Mori from the right side took off and spiked the ball. The ball hit Ren Ito's hand.
"One touch!" Ren shouted.
Sato calmly set the ball towards Kirito. The ball was set towards the middle. Kirito sprang up like a coil and using his core strength used up every ounce of strength and spiked the ball.
BOOM!!
"Spike over the block!"
The ball landed between front row and back row.
[Izumitate 3- 0 Shichigahama]
"Just how high can he jump?" Every Shichigahama player were thinking at the moment.
"What a power spike!" one of the spectator said cheerfully.
"That was a spike over block!" another one exclaimed.
"So cool!" they added.
The match continued without any suspense and Kirito's team IzumitateJunior High won by taking two set victory.
[Izumitate 25- 13 Shichigahama].
[Izumitate 25- 12 Shichigahama].
Out of 25 points in the first set Kirito had a total of 14 points to his name and in the second set he took 15 points out of 25.
"Alright everyone, stretch properly to loosen up all the fatigue and be prepared for the next match." Kirito said.
"Yes!" everybody said in unison.
The next matchup would be with Kōyō Middle School.
Kirito went around to check other teams. Especially Hinata Shoyo's Yukigaoka Junior High and Kageyama's Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High.
In the anime both of them are destined to play against each other and Hinata's team loses.
Kirito was prepared to face both of them. But, Kirito was certain he would likely face Kageyama's Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High.
After gathering intel about other teams he headed back to his team.