3/15 Report

We had 10 players this week. Dan, Sandy and I all employed the 5 Step Plan and arrived early. We had enough players to begin playing at 12noon. There were close games (mostly) although I seem to recall being on the wrong side of one blow out.

We had two ‘what are the rules’ situations worth discussing. I do mean to raise these as a discussion, so if you feel differently join in the discussion.

The easy one was playing a ball that hit the ceiling. There were only a few minutes left in our session so we decided to play a short game to 11. A ball was hit up and contacted the ceiling, Brent was near the net and trying to make a legal play by touching the ball before it went over the net. Unfortunately the ball got hung up on the overhanging basket and in the interest of time we decided to continue play using another ball. However, we generally do consider balls that hit the ceiling and come down within reach of your side of the playing court to be playable balls. Balls that hit side walls or hit the ceiling and continue over to the other playing court are not considered to be in play.

“Attacking the Serve” – I have to apologize to Brent in that I miscalled this situation. Brent was in the opposing middle front position, jumped up on the serve and directed it to one of his wing players. I stopped action and stated that we were trying to prevent “attacking the serve”. Upon review of the rules - “No player is permitted to complete an attack hit on the opponents’ service, when the ball is in the front zone and entirely higher than the top of the net.” However, an attack is a play that directs the ball back at the opponent, so which Brent wasn’t doing. I believe the volleyball gods rectified the situation with the ensuring play.