What happened?

[refnrev]

Last night I had a first and I am not sure exactly what or how it happened. First game of the V match. Both teams using the L but not to serve. I'm U. 25 purple goes to the proper area to sub in for 15. The only problem was that according to my lineup card 25 is already in the game. I call an official TO and check with the book. No one has 15 in the game and no one knew when she subbed in. She didn't sub in through me. L Tracker didn't have it, scorer didn't have it. No one. I just had 25 wanting to sub in and according to all of us 25 was in the game. She (15) didn't come in during a TO so we had to assume she came in incorrectly on a libero substitution but no one had any idea when. Since no one had any idea when she came in no one knew exactly how to record it or to correct it or penalize it. At the conclusion of the game I told the coach to make sure everyone subbed in and to do the "dispsy doodle" as they call it around here just as if L were serving next game. She had them do that the rest of the game and no more problems.
OK any idea what happened? I know we had an illegal substitution somewhere.... but no one knew when, where, or how? Any ideas on this. What should have happened and what should have been done?

[TimTaylor]

Did the libero replace #25 anytime during the game prior to discovering this? If she did, odds are that 15 came back in for the libero instead of #25, which is an illegal replacement(not substitution). As fast as it happens it would be easy for the tracker to mistake 15 for 25.....especially if they weren't paying real close attention......

Penalty is UD/TO (if they have one left) when discovered. What I would have done is charged them with the UD & assessed the TO, then correct the lineup by putting #25 back on the floor in the proper position...just my $0.02....

[Andy]

Tim is probably right in his assumption regarding the libero and an improper replacement. The penalty is correct, also.

Personally, I would have a real hard time assessing a penalty here based on what I "thought" might have happened without any type of documentation in the scorebook, L tracker sheet, or my lineup card.

I would probably handle it much the way you did. Call both coaches over and explain what happened, you can't confirm anything, no penalty will be assesed, and please make sure that proper procedures are followed for substitutions and libero replacements. I would also have a conversation with my table crew to all stay alert for the libero replacements and make sure they are documented correctly.

[refnrev]

The odd thing is they were a very good table crew. And they were seemingly right on top of everything all night. That's what made it so weird. It had to be on an L replacement..... but when and how.... and it that was still only a guess. I didn't assess a penalty because I'm not giving a penalty on an assupmtion...just like on game point in game two. The R was screened so he pointed at me. I had six shoes between me and the ball. I signaled a replay because I wasn't giving game point on something I thought happened but couldn't see. Someone in the state office told the coach not to do the "dispy doodle" unless the L was serving, but tyhat is not what we were told last year. I don't know how in the world you are supposed to track her replacement prcedure correcly without it. But I am by my own admission rusty becuase I have been doing so much soccer this fall and so little VB. Any insights on how else to do this?

[FMadera]

Originally Posted by Andy

Personally, I would have a real hard time assessing a penalty here based on what I "thought" might have happened without any type of documentation in the scorebook, L tracker sheet, or my lineup card.

I would probably handle it much the way you did. Call both coaches over and explain what happened, you can't confirm anything, no penalty will be assesed, and please make sure that proper procedures are followed for substitutions and libero replacements. I would also have a conversation with my table crew to all stay alert for the libero replacements and make sure they are documented correctly.

I can't agree with this. You *do* have documentation, a player on the court who is not in the book as officially being in the game.

If no one has record of this player being in the game, at the very least you have an illegal libero replacement, or an illegal substitution. At the point you have discovered an improper player on the court, knowing she played a rally, you at the very least have an unnecessary delay. You do not need to have pinpointed her exact moment of entry to be able to enforce this penalty.

[refnrev]

FM,
Walk me through the correct substitution process for this step by step if you would because the coach thought she was having her players sub in exactly how she was told to do so by a certified (I think) local official and the people in Bloomington. She said it was how they were subbing in but she didn't understand why, either. I could not see, however, why or how they would have told her to do what she was doing because there is no way to record the substituions in the book or on a lineup card to document it. Someone has incorrect information. This is for non-serving liberos.

[FMadera]

Ok, I'll go through it (since I saw it a bunch this weekend at my college matches).

You can have either:

Substitution, and then the libero replaces the person subbing in, or;

Replacement for the correct player, followed by the substitution.

For example:

10 is the MB who can't serve, 1 is the server for her, and 6 is your L.

1 subs for 10. Your lineup card would read 10/1, as would the scoresheet line item (10, followed by one, not 10 for 1, just to be clear).

1 is done serving, so you can either have:

10 subbing back for 1, with L replacing 10, then 10 can replace L when she goes back to the front row, which the tracker would show as 10/1/10/L/10, or;

L can replace 1, but when 10 comes back to the front row, then you have to have the libero replacement of L for 1, followed by 1 subbing for 10, which the tracker would show as 10/1/L/1/10..

Either way, your card would look like 10/1/10.

[refnrev]

Thanks! RR