Ever made this call?

[PaREF]

I typically officiate at a big, east coast AAU tournament over Memorial Day weekend but some of our club players wanted to get together and form a team to play - and I was the only coach available. So I was able to still enjoy the tournament but spend about half of the time that I normally would.

I got a chance to see a lot of different officials than I normally would at local tournaments. All quality officials with different styles and personalities. All-in-all not much to complain about from a coaching standpoint.

But (and there's always a but!) there was one call made against our team that I can't recall ever seeing before. My one middle was working on her jump-float and she was starting near the back edge of the sport court. I wasn't watching her as she served, my focus was on our opponent. The served ball contacted the top of the net about a foot inside the antenna (R2 side) and dropped down on the opponent's side of the court. We all began to celebrate the ace when I noticed the R1 awarding the point to our opponent. I then watched as he gave the "out" signal.

I was a little puzzled, thinking that maybe he thought that the ball had contacted the antenna (although the line judge signaled 'ball down'). He obviously could tell that I was confused about the call because he looked at me and said, "She started off the court", as he pointed to the back of the sport court. Since I wasn't watching the server I couldn't say if she was or wasn't contacting the floor outside of the sport court when she started her serving motion (although I did ask her and she told me that she was contacting the floor, so the official was correct).

I have certainly seen players prepare to serve while contacting the floor outside the sport court but I (and every other official that I have ever seen) have always just motioned for the server to get on the sport court before beckoning for serve. I suppose I might make a call if the same player repeatedly started her serving motion off of the sport court surface but I can't recall ever doing that - or seeing it. Anyone else?