[MCBear]

whistleman, you're forgetting one important part of the equation - the coach is supposed to know who they have subbed in and out of the game. Once the coach requested the sub and #8 entered the sub zone, she had to enter the game. When #5 came over to the sideline showing herself to be the player subbing out for #8, at that point we have Unnecessary Delay occurring (since #8 was already subbing in and out for #18 during that same game and I am guessing that #5 did not sub into the game for #18).

So, once again, it comes down to whether the team had a time-out available or not. From your later posts, I can only infer that they did not have a time-out available since you have not indicated otherwise. Any way that you slice it, without a time-out available to be called as a penalty due to the Unnecessary Delay, you are going to award Match Point to the opponent per 11-2-Penalty 2.

In this situation, there is no way out of awarding the penalty point if the team does not have a time-out available (and neither ignorance of the rules nor not wanting to end the match on a call like this is an excuse).

Big Toe - good point about the-call-that-was-let-go. I know that many of us have experienced the same thing where that call that we ignored because the team was so far behind came back to bite us BIGTIME!