Feferee Causes Rotation / Alignment Error
 

Below is 5.4.3 SITUATION D. It last appeared in the 2018 - 2019 NFHS Case Book, but has been removed from subsequent editions.

SITUATION: Team A serves the ball into the net, then requests a time-out. When both teams return to the court, the coach of Team B asks for the serving order of his/her team. The second referee places Team B in the wrong serving order. The error is not discovered until Team B has won points with an improper server. Prior to Team A serving, the scorer notifies the referees that Team B had an improper server. After conferring with the second referee, the first referee corrects Team B's serving order, cancels the four points scored with the improper server, and Team B serves with the proper server.

RULING: Correct procedure.

COMMENT: The first referee may correct an error by a member of the officiating crew provided the correction occurs before the opposing team contacts the ball for the serve.

What happens if the referee puts the RECEIVING team in the incorrect order? Do the words "opposing team" affect the ruling?

Play: R2 puts Team R/B in rotation 1; the should be in rotation 6. S/A serves and loses the point. Before R serves, the error is discovered. Do we:
A) use the case play above and have a "do over"
B) Let R keep the point they won and have the proper server serve (again, Rotation 1)
C) Call R for illegal alignment and switch the point to S/A

Going strictly on nothing but my logic:

C isn't an option. Not a valid one, at least.

if B assumes it was discovered after the point AND the question is "do we keep them in Rotation 1 even though we now know they should be in Rotation 6," that doesn't seem like much of a valid option either.

Assuming (once again) that Rotation 6 leaves players illegally aligned (trust me, there are times teams can line up in multiple rotations legally with pretty much the same player layout), that leaves us with A as the option here. Especially if Team the serving team can correctly point out they shouldn't lose the rally if the receiving team was not lined up legally. This also assumes the receiving team did NOT win the rally because of an illegal service of some variety.

Just my thoughts.

I also think A is the correct response. If we can't let Team A keep their points while they were aligned illegally, I don't see how we can let Team keep that point while aligned illegally.

You don't want to penalize them by losing the rally (because we don't do that in the original scenario), but I don't see how they can win a point when we know they're not in the correct positions. (And we know because we put them there!)

Re-play.

Exactly what we did yesterday. I was going to email the coach, but then I thought he might pick-up on / question the "opposing team" language -- I think it's just "normal english" to be applied to the specific case play, not a rules prescription.

Thanks,.