wrong server

[Andy]

Originally posted by sport
Incidence: I as the down official believe that Team A has a wrong server going to the line, I am fairly sure that the wrong server is approaching the serving area, I ask the excellent and very experienced score keeper if the correct server is at the line, she replies yes, server scores two points, I ask again, "are you sure that is the correct server?" score keeper replies "yes". server makes another point, on the next serve the ball is lost. Team B serves with the correct server, loses the ball, Team A sends same server to the line as was up previously, I say to the score keeper, "so she was the wrong server last time?" score keeper replies, "oh my yes". Coach on Team B becomes incenced, because he heard me asking about serving order previously. Game goes on, no points were taken away because the serve had changed. What could or should I have done? Should I have taken time to check the score book and make sure?

Sounds to me that you did just about all you could. You asked a scorekeeper that you trusted, twice even, and received an affirmative response. I suppose that you could have checked the book yourself, but I would only recommend that if you weren't confident with the scorekeeper or you noticed that s/he hadn't been paying attention.

Did team B not have anyone keeping a book? Usually, both teams keep a book with the home team being official. If Coach B heard you ask previously, why wasn't he asking his bookkeeper about the serving order and getting it straightened out right then. Once team A has lost serve and team B has served, it's too late to do anything about it.