Girl leaves the game, returns
 

I just got a call from a friend. GV tonight.

Team has 5 players on the floor. The ball is given to the thrower-in and at some point after the ball becomes live, a player leaves the floor and sits on the bench, thinking she was replaced. While the ball is live, she realizes her mistake and returns to the game. No deception occurs.

I know what they did and I know what I did based on the case plays, etc. What would you do?

Violation under 9-3-3.

Well, that's what I would do. Violation for leaving unauthorized. Problem is they didn't catch it until after she returned. Not sure that changes anything.

If they didn't see her leave, but only saw her return that poses a problem.

The officials can only call what they observe, so they would have to follow this case play:
10.3.2 SITUATION B: After a lengthy substitution process involving multiple
substitutions for both Team A and Team B, A5 goes to the bench and remains
there, mistakenly believing he/she has been replaced. The ball is put in play even
though Team A has only four players on the court. Team A is bringing the ball into
A’s frontcourt when the coach of Team A realizes they have only four players. The
coach yells for A5 to return and he/she sprints directly onto the court and catches
up with the play. RULING: No technical foul is charged to A5. A5’s return to
the court was not deceitful, nor did it provide A5 an unfair positioning advantage
on the court.

That's the other play I quoted.

Of course, the problem there is that the crew knows they started with 5 and one left undetected.

I see 2 options, and you've mentioned both:

(1) Charge the violation once you realize that the player left unauthorized and returned.

(2) Use 10.3.2 situation B.

I lean towards B.

I don't lean towards the technical foul the crew charged. Like I told my friend, the A player that left when returning was not a substitute, so the rules about reporting and beckoning simply do not apply. When he called and asked my opinion, I went right for 10.3.2 B and said that either it's that or a violation for unauthorized leaving the court.

Rich, I agree with you. The only way that this could be a T under the current rules is for the crew to deem the action was deceptive. It would then be an unsporting player technical.