The Spring High Volleyball Tournament has ended again this year.
The women's tournament ended with Osaka Kinrankai winning for the second consecutive year, while the men's tournament ended with Kyoto Rakunan winning for the second time in 14 years. This time, we would like to review the men's final match between Rakunan High School (Kyoto) and Seifu High School (Osaka).
Starting lineup (from setter to serve)
Rakunan: 5S Yamamoto, 4OH Tarumi, 9MB Mizoi, 6OP Miyano, 1OH Otsuka, 2MB Nakajima (7L Naito)
Seifu: 5S Fujiwara, 3OH Takikawa, 1MB Nishikawa, 4OP Kudo, 2OH Takahashi, 6MB Yamamoto (12L Furutsuji)
Set 1
Rakunan started with S4 and Seifu started with S1, with Rakunan serving. Until the middle of the game, both teams were competing. Rakunan concentrated the ball on both aces, Otsuka in the early stages and Tarumi from the middle stages, while Seifu scattered the ball from the early stages and scored points as usual. However, in this game, Rakunan thoroughly targeted Takahashi with jump floater serves, putting pressure on him and making it difficult for him to participate in the attack. On the other hand, Rakunan's two aces hardly participated in the serve reception, so Seifu had to attack with serves more than Rakunan, but they were unable to break down Miyano and Naito of Rakunan (Miyano was OH, or as you can see from the rotation order, he was concentrating on defense). In addition, Kudo, who is the next point getter after ace Nishikawa, was not in good form and made noticeable mistakes in important situations. Due to these factors, Rakunan gradually pulled away from Seifu from the middle of the game, and in the end, Otsuka scored a goal to give Rakunan the set 25-22.
Set 2
Rakunan started with a serve at S5, and Seifu started with a serve at S1. The outcome of this set was decided early on. After Rakunan got a side out to make it 3-1, Otsuka's jump floater continued to disrupt Takahashi's aim, and before they knew it, they had scored nine consecutive points to make it 11-1. At this time, Seifu had Nishikawa and Kudo in the front row, which was a rotation that should have been highly offensive, but Kudo missed, Takahashi was not in top form because he was passing, and even though the pass was returned and Nishikawa could use it, Fujiwara's toss, which was crucial, was low and Nishikawa was unable to score. In the end, Kudo managed to score, but it was too late. After that, Rakunan's two aces continued to attack with a solid attack, especially Tarumi, and they won this set by a large margin of 25-13.
Third set
Rakunan S4, Seifu S1, Rakunan serve starts. From this set, Rakunan setter Yamamoto changed distribution and started to diversify quicks. Seifu was at the mercy of this, but everyone, led by Nishikawa, hung in there and showed a competitive development. There were two times during this set when Seifu almost got the momentum. First, Tarumi's spike mistake made it 15-13. Tarumi had made a spike mistake two plays before this and it looked like they were about to collapse (in fact, the back attack he hit after that was left lying around, perhaps out of fear of making a mistake). Here, Seifu would have been able to break down with a serve and land Tarumi's high ball, but the serve receive was returned cleanly and Mizoi was able to score a quick. The second time, and the biggest point of this set, was when Seifu somehow managed to catch up with three consecutive points in the final stages, 22-21, and was just one point behind Rakunan. During the rally, a free ball was returned to Seifu, giving them a chance to tie the score. However, due to a setter's mistake, the attack was not successful, and instead, they were hit with a counter attack, making the score 23-21. The game was already decided. Otsuka scored the 24th point with confidence, and Takahashi was caught in a block at the end, making the game a set. Rakunan won the match with a score of 25-21 and a set count of 3-0. Rakunan won the tournament with no lost sets.
I think the difference in serve was also large throughout the match. Although the aces of both teams, Otsuka and Nishikawa, were able to fulfill their respective roles, the difference between the next most important scorers, Tarumi and Kudo, was also large in this match. Tarumi was in top form until the middle of the third set, while Kudo scored a fair number of points but lost many, and was unable to get into his groove until the end. In other words, it may have been the difference between the two setters, Yamamoto, who was able to get Tarumi on his feet, and Fujiwara, who was unable to step up Kudo's game until the end.
However, both teams had very few guess blocks and were persistent in putting pressure on the opponent with lead blocks, and they were very strong defensively as well as offensively. Each player also had a well-defined role and seemed to have a high volleyball IQ. There is no doubt that both teams were very well-rounded as high school students.
Personally, I am very excited about the future prospects of Rakunan's Otsuka and Yamamoto, and Seifuku's Nishikawa, and I look forward to seeing them perform well at the Paris Olympics.
Finally, congratulations to my great senior's alma mater, Rakunan High School, on winning the Spring High School Volleyball Tournament!!!
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