I took my 17's team to a tournament Sunday and while I was the R2 for our work team, had a team (both times we worked) put in a libero when they did not have one listed on the lineup sheet. What really threw me was that (again, both times) they did not use a libero in the first set and I didn't even notice one on the bench until they were on the court. Also, both times the coach had put a dash through the box for the libero on the lineup sheet, clearly indicating they did not have a libero!
Anyway, the really interesting ruling came from the R1 on the second time it occured. Team A began the match with the serve and scored two points. The next thing I know, a libero runs in for team B as team A was preparing for serve and the libero tracker said "coach, they don't have a libero on their lineup!".
Now, it was late in the day and my mind was still in coach-mode so it took me until after the serve for my mind to comprehend what happened. Rather than kill the play, I figured I would wait until the rally was over and straighten things out. Well, as luck would have it Team B won the rally. I hold up my hand to the R1 and start to walk over to her as the libero runs off the court and is replaced by #31, who she came in for.
As our conversation was going on, team B rotated, team A went in to serve-receive, and the scorer had given team B the point. I inform the R1 what happened and I said it should be an illegal alignment, team B loses the point, and team A continues to serve. She agrees but throws me for a loop. She says that since team B had already rotated, they stay in that rotation, lose the point, team A gets the serve, and they also rotate to their next server.
I said "No, it was an illegal alignment, team A gets the point, and we stay with the same server." She tells me, "No. If you had blown your whistle when you first noticed the libero it would have been an illegal alignment. But since you waited until after the play was over to inform me, team B loses the point but they still rotate. Team A earns a point and they rotate to the next server."
I was in no mood to argue the point and I'm sure she felt I was a lowly coach who was barely capable of calling a center line violation so I walked away. I went back to the scorers table, told my scorekeeper to cancel the point, award it to team A, and both teams would rotate. She looked at me like I had two heads as she said "What am I supposed to do about an exit score for team B's first server?" I said "Leave it blank and if anyone has any questions about it, they can ask her!"
