By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.3, April 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0903/bbnagws.htm
After much debate and consideration, women’s collegiate volleyball will have a new scoring format beginning with the 2001 season. The National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS) decided at its volleyball rules meeting in February to replace the current side-out scoring system with rally scoring, where a point is awarded each time the ball is put into play, regardless of which team has served.
The NAGWS rules are used by the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA, meaning the change will likely affect all levels of intercollegiate volleyball, although these governing bodies are free to adjust the rules as they see fit. NCAA men’s volleyball uses USA Volleyball rules and has already adopted the rally-scoring format.
“It was a very courageous vote, because many college coaches say they would still prefer the side-out game,” says Dr. Geri Polvino, Chair of the NAGWS Rules Committee and a Professor and former Head Volleyball Coach at Eastern Kentucky University. “Although there’s been a move towards support for the rally-score game, there’s still strong support for the side-out game, for many reasons. But this decision wasn’t made in one meeting. We have been grappling with this for at least four years.
“The NAGWS had to respect all the feedback we were getting about not changing the game,” Polvino continues. “But the world is playing with rally scoring, our USA juniors are playing with rally scoring, our men are playing with rally scoring, and we felt we may have caused some isolation if we continued to play side-out volleyball.
“From where I was sitting, I felt the members of this committee showed phenomenal leadership. Their constituents may not agree with the outcome, but they surely should be very proud of the dialogue that went forward, as well as the ultimate resolution.”
As of press time, the final rules had not been written. But the committee agreed that a match would consist of the best three-out-of five games. The first four games would be played to 30 points and the fifth game, if needed, would be played to 15 points.
“I think we found out from both men’s and women’s international play that rally scoring is an exciting part of the game,” Polvino says. “There are some features of the game that make us think we still have not arrived at the format that is most desirable, but we may be closer. How to best format the rally score is something that still needs to be decided. There are a lot of different proposals on the table and I think that it will evolve as time goes on.”
The NAGWS also made two other significant changes to the playing rules, although they will cause less stir than the scoring change. First, a serve that hits the net and continues over to the opposing side will remain in play. Second, only one service toss will be allowed. The new rules will go into effect at the beginning of the 2001 season.
“The let serve was one of several topics we discussed at great length,” says NAGWS Rules Editor Marcia Alterman. “The reports from those in the volleyball community who have already adopted it are all positive. I’ve heard almost nothing negative. So I’m hoping our coaches and teams will find that it works well for them, too.”
SIDEBAR:
High Schools Stay With Side-Out Scoring
Although the college game is switching to rally scoring, the high school game, for the most part, is not. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), which writes the rules for all but two volleyball-playing states, will keep the traditional side-out format for the 2001-2002 season. And the two states which currently use NAGWS rules, New York and Massachusetts, are considering adopting the NFHS rules in the future.
The NFHS has made some adjustments to its substitution rules for next season, though. The new rules will allow a total of 18 substitutions per game per team, with no limits placed on individual players entering and exiting the line-up.