Tracking re-serves
 

I had a situation tonight that I have not experienced previously. I am R1. Team H is serving, down by about 9 points or so. S runs off about 5 points, and Team V uses a timeout. S scores 2 more points after timeout. On the next serve, S allows the ball to drop to the floor. I start to call for a re-serve, but then I am 99% sure she had a re-serve on her first serve of this term of service. Same server had two other re-serves previously in the match, so that accounts for my 1% uncertainty. I ask R2 if S has already used up her re-serve, and he does not know. I ask him to check with the SK. He talks to her for a few seconds and then tells me that she wasn't keeping track of that.

This was a MS match and this was a first year SK. Neither school used a libero so there was no LT. Speaking briefly with SK after the match, she told me she wasn't aware she was supposed to track re-serves. Timer told me she was sure the S had already used a re-serve. For the record, since I was not 100% sure, I allowed the re-serve, and V team won the point and closed out the match shortly thereafter. Is there anything more I could have or should have done?

You're talking NFHS rules, Bob? Because I'm pretty sure in NCAA, you only get one shot at the serve. I don't think there's any such thing as a "re-serve" if you allow the toss to drop.

Am I right about that?

Yes, I am talking NFHS rules. Each server is allowed one re-serve per term of service. The term of service continues through the time out in my scenario. You are allowed a re-serve if you let the ball drop to the floor or catch it without making an attempt at the serve.

Oh, and by the way, I am not familiar with NCAA rules so we'll have to wait for Felix or Jan to chime in on that. I'm assuming your high schools use that rule set? I know Texas high school football uses NCAA rules but I didn't realize other states use them for certain sports.

Don't know what more you could have done. You weren't sure, checked with your crew, still weren't sure, so you moved on. In this case, you can't call what you are not 100% sure about.

Usually, I find that a re-serve happens so rarely, that it it easy to remember. The timeout in your situation did not help either. That being said, the great majority of my VB is schedule is HS level matches, I may do less than 5 MS matches a year. At the HS level, the need for the reserve is rare, in my experience.

Correct under NCAA rules. No dropped tosses, 8 seconds to serve.

Bob, when I am the R2 and a server tosses and drops or tosses and catches, I verbalize to my SK to record an RS in the service box. That way if there is a second re-serve during the term of service, we've got it covered.

In your situation, without being 100% certain, you had no choice other than to allow the re-serve.

Is there a whistle when the server drops the toss? If not, how do we signal a reserve?

Yes, you whistle and give the replay signal. Then you will whistle and beckon for serve again.