"Cracking the Strategy" (Japanese:
Overview[]
Kamomedai quickly adapts to Karasuno's new tactics. Although unable to stop Hinata, Kamomedai is using their serve-and-block to limit Karasuno's offense while putting heavy pressure on Asahi.
Plot[]
After Kanbayashi cleanly receives Asahi's serve, Gao, Hirugami, and Nozawa simultaneously move up to spike. Hinata is overwhelmed by the sheer number of spikers and fail to put up a block in time. Ukai knows that having Tsukishima and Kageyama together makes a solid defense but switching up the rotation is necessary to break through Kamomedai's wall. At the moment, Kamomedai is struggling to keep up with Hinata as the latter scores another point with a broad attack.
After some failed serves from both sides, Kageyama sends a powerful serve toward Kamomedai. Kanbayashi successfully keeps the ball in play, allowing Suwa to send a back row toss to Hoshiumi. Tsukishima and Daichi are ready to block, but Hoshiumi calmly aims at Tsukishima's fingers for a perfectly executed block-out. Next, Suwa continues the trend of troublesome serves with a jump floater. Meanwhile, Futakuchi suddenly realizes that Kamomedai has switched-up their blocking tactics to a shade formation, which involves two blockers bunched up in the middle while the third one remains on the side to mark a specific spiker. With a botched receive, Karasuno relies on Asahi for the final touch. Kamomedai successfully stops Asahi's spike, but the ball lands out-of-bounds to give Karasuno a lucky point.
Sometime later, Hoshiumi's serve forces Karasuno to rely on Asahi once again. This time, Kamomedai shuts down the spike cleanly. They are aware that even if they can't stop Hinata directly, they are other ways to limit his effectiveness in boosting Karasuno's offence.
Appearances[]
Chapter notes[]
Character revelations[]
- Kamomedai's troublesome servers include Hoshiumi, Hirugami, and Suwa.
- While Hoshiumi specializes in the jump serve, both Hirugami and Suwa are skilled with the jump floater.
Trivia[]
- A shade blocking formation is when a team have two blockers in the middle and the third on the sides in order to mark a certain Spiker.
- The chapter includes a color page of Hinata jumping up ready to spike. The text reads: "The ball is softly floating in midair as if time has stopped."