Thursday.

Practice started as soon as everyone got back from the morning run and had a drink of water. We began with serve receive drills, then spike receives from coach.

After that, coach made the announcement that I would be setting on team b when we played. "Wait, so who is gonna take her place?"

"Shiraishi is going to be the outside for team B, Fujimura is going to be the right side, and Kimura is going to the the right side for Team A." Coach explained, and we all nodded.

The mock game started with me in the serving position and Fujimura as my opposite. I served using my jump topspin, which got us an ace.

The next one, Yumiko got up and they had to chance ball it over. "I got it! For you." Azusa received the ball, sending it right to me.

A million thoughts ran through my head. Who should I send it to? How high? How fast? Back row? Setter dump? Who has the best chance to score?

I ended up sending it to the left, where Chiyako was waiting. She did her approach and slammed the ball down line. "Yeesaaaaaahhhh!" The team cheered.

"That was a nice toss Kaz!" Chiyako commented.

"Thank you! Tell me if you want it any higher or lower, I'll make it work. I'm also good with doing different combination attacks if you all are alright with that." I explained to the team.

"Um, I think we'll just stick to the normal if that's alright." Azusa told me and I nodded.

"Alright then." The game continued, and as we went I got to know more of where my spikers liked their tosses. Bushida, my middle, told me that she wanted to do a broad jump setup when I got to the front row, and a time lag quick whenever I felt like it.

I could feel it. Literally feel how well the girls were preforming with Kazane as their setter. She was maxing out the effectiveness for each spiker, somehow knowing exactly where to go to get the best opportunity for a point.

Kazane wasn't limiting her sets to a specific player, instead she was spreading the ball around. Keeping the opponents on their toes.

What a setter, I grinned. But now, I needed to figure out how I wanted to work this. She's no longer valuable as just the ace, but we still needed her as the ace as well..

Taking out my notes, I started sketching out my idea for the new line up so that Kazane could be the setter.

To be honest, I sort of felt bad because I would be taking out Azusa and Hado, both of which are third years. However, I know that they would rather win and have more chances to play than play and lose.

"Alright guys, we're going to have a new line up." Coach announced. We had finished the mock match and my team won by a landslide.

Lining us out on the court, she explained what her thinking was.

"On the back line, Kazane will set and Shiraishi will be right side. When Kazane rotates up to the front line, Hado will sub in for Shiraishi and set back line." Coach explained. "This line up means that Kazane will be right side, are you good with that?" She directed the question at me.

"Yes ma'am!" I said, and so the line up was set.

~•~

Friday came and it was time to play the team at the top of our prefecture: Niiyama Girl's High.

From what I had heard, they went to nationals every year recently. The thought made me smirk at the thought of being the first to defeat them and us going to nationals instead.

However we were only doing a practice match, so I needed to reel it in a bit. After playing with our new line up for a bit, we changed into our jerseys and set the gym up for the game.

Niiyama arrived, and we thanked each other for the match and shook hands. "Wow you're tall." Their captain commented, which made me snicker.

"Yep! Got the good genes! My brother stole an inch though so he's taller." I joked, to which she laughed.

The practice match started, and they had serve so we rotated back one.

"Serves up!" Yumiko yelled, then received the ball. "Sorry it's short!"

"I got it!" I said, getting into position. In my peripheral vision, I took in the placement of their blockers and receivers.

I sent the ball to Ejiri for a middle quick. Niiyama didn't see it coming since I was behind the ten foot, so we scored. "Way to go!" We all high fived, and Ejiri and I fist bumped.

"Man, so you're not a spiker?" The captain asked, and I just shrugged with a wink as I grabbed the ball from one of my teammates and jogged to the end line to serve.

Tossing the ball high in the air, I did my approach and hit it. Flying over the net, their libero received it but it wasn't very stable. "Sorry, cover!"

"Got it!" Their setter set the ball, "Kanoka!" Their left side went to approach, and right as our blockers were about to jump I yelled, "Soft block it!"

The girl's eyes widened as she hit it, and it went flying. However, Yumiko managed to get it up. "Azusa!" I yelled, sending it to her high. "Send it over!"

"Right!" Azusa said, doing her approach and swinging. It got around the block, but their setter dug it up.

"Nice receive! Kanoka!" Their right side shouted, passing it to the wing spiker.

"Readyyyyyyy, up!" Azusa directed, and they once again soft blocked it. It skyrocketed upwards, but Yumiko had locked into it.

"Chance ball!" She called, receiving it as it came down. "Kazane!"

"You got it!" I smirked, it was in the perfect position. Glancing back at Azusa, I saw the blockers start to move over to her. Without making eye contact, I sent it to Aguni, who hit it line and their setter shanked it.

"Nice line shot!" The team cheered, high fives all around. The rest of the game, it was much more of a struggle. We ended up playing three, the first ending at 27-25 us, the second being 32-34, and the last was 28-26 us.

The most hilarious thing, though, was that they got so confused when I started spiking and not setting. They figured it out pretty quick though.

"Thank you for the game!" We bowed to each other, then shook hands. With that, training camp/golden week was over.