[Back In The Saddle]

I worked a frosh girls tourney yesterday, the sort of event where you see every team several times and by the end of the day you know where every player plays, who they sub for, what offense they run, etc.

I'm R, and I note that Copper Hills' setters are unmistakably not opposite (they run a 6-2). One is lined up at CF (holding hands with the RF, waiting to swap after the serve), the other is at LB. I signal for serve then call IA when it's contacted. Coach understandably wants to know who's out of alignment. I tell her across the floor that either 4 or 7 is out, because they are not opposite.

My U, properly I think, grabs the line up and he and the coach look at it together for a while. My partner can't figure out who's out, and calls for a re-serve, which I go with. Sure enough, on the re-serve, the BR setter is lined up as CB (more correctly, the libero who was lined up at CB has moved to LB, the setter is in the same place she was).

There has to be a better way to handle this. I know it was my bad for not knowing which setter was out of alignment. But that really shouldn't matter that much, it was clearly an IA. I could have easily explained what I saw to the coach if I were the U. But being "stuck" up top, and not feeling like I can carry on a conversation by shouting across the court, I'm kind of stuck. And with my U not being able to figure it out...

U and I talked after that game and he decided that if it happened again, he'll just tell coach that I've got something, he's not sure what it is, but we're going with it. That seems better than what we did. But still not ideal. Fortunately it didn't happen again.

Unfortunately it happened again in a later match, with a different partner, and I didn't call it because I didn't want a repeat of what happened previously. Chicken? Possibly. But I was taught long ago not to call what I don't know how to enforce.

So...what's a poor R to do?

Should I call my U across, chat with him, and have him relay it to the coach? Should I call the coach across and talk directly? Should I call a captain over, and have her relay the details? Should I come down and go across to talk?

Thoughts?