couple situations to check on

[refinks]

Guys, let me preface by saying that while I have officiated volleyball for 5, 6 years now, I still feel like a rookie because I came into it never having played or even watched a volleyball match (well, maybe I watched a couple when I was in high school or college) so for the most part, my knowledge of volleyball has been very limited. A couple situations took place over the last few days that I want to get your guys insight on, as I know there are some very knowledgeable people on these forums.

Situation 1: Middle school tournament last Saturday, I'm R2, in my position checking for overlaps (which I still struggle with mightily btw). In looking across the court, I notice that the front left player is straddling the sideline with half the foot inbounds and half the foot out of bounds. For some reason, I was thinking this was the same situation as the center line, where the entire foot had to be over for it to be a violation. So I had nothing, nobody said anything about it. In looking at the rulebook, it seems that this should have been an illegal alignment as the way I read it, no part of a players body may be touching outside a boundary line during contact of serve. So in my situation, am I correct that I should have had an illegal alignment?

Situation 2: JV game, definite talent discrepancy between the 2 teams. I'm R1. The significantly better team (for lack of a better description) likes to use quick attacks, where the setter will set the ball and almost immediately an attacker is spiking it. So, in this situation, the setter came from the back row. In this particular instance, for whatever reason, she decided to jump set, and clearly set the ball while it was completely above the net. As soon as the hitter hit the ball over the net on the next hit, I had a back row attack. Coach was very upset, insisting this could not be a back row attack because the setter is not the one that put the ball over the net, but rather one of her teammates did on the next hit. I disagreed, and the coach ended up getting a yellow card from me. A few points later, my partner gave her a red for continuing to argue the call. She eventually quieted down and stayed in the match, but had a few choice words for us after the match. No big deal, but now I'm second guessing myself. Did I make the right call on the back row attack? My partner thought I did, but he, like myself, was unsure of the rule.

Admittedly, illegal alignments, overlapping, and back row are things I struggle with most. I feel like I've gotten better at identifying illegal hits based on prolonged contact, mishits, and quadrant changes. But as for the rest, it's still a struggle. Thanks in advance for any help I receive on these matters.