What's the Call? (Wisconsin vs USC)
 

Peculiar situation on Pac-12 Network tonight in the match between Wisconsin and USC...

R1 beckons and Wisconsin server pauses, then starts her approach for a jump float serve. Meanwhile, a player from the USC bench comes sprinting to the sub zone. R2 motions her away (I'm not sure if she actually entered the sub zone or not, but I imagine she did). Server sees the commotion after her toss and lets the ball drop. The server quickly re-collects the ball (from the bench's urging) and serves the ball.

What is the call under each ruleset (NCAA, NFHS, USAV)? For purposes of this discussion, let's assume for the NFHS ruleset that the server has already used her re-serve.

NFHS I'm inclined to charge Unnecessary Delay here because the R1 has beckoned for serve.

So you're calling a replay then giving a delay?

I'm saying the actions of the receiving team caused confusion for the server so in that case with the replay gone I'm going with delay.

Good luck rationalizing that to the heated coach.

The only person at fault here is the server. Much like the ball that rolls on the court, or a team that stops playing because they think a fault occurred, these all rely on a whistle to end the rally to definitively determine that the rally needs to be stopped. They should know, and learn sometimes the hard way, to play until they hear the whistle.

The defining factor in the scenario Kayla listed is whether or not the second referee acknowledged (whistled) the request at all. It sounds like they didn't and just issued an improper request (the wave off).

So, knowing what we know...

NCAA: This is a service fault. Catching, letting the ball drop to the floor after tossing the ball for service is a service fault.

USAV: This is a service fault. Catching, letting the ball drop after tossing it for service is a service fault.

Now, at the first referee's discretion, they may issue a replay if they feel external commotion interefered with play (again, good luck defending this if it's not extremely obvious), however, this should be used sparingly, if ever.

This is a service fault in USAV and NCAA without question. In NFHS, this would be a reserve if the player has not already used their reserve, else it too would be a service fault. The NFHS casebook directs us to ignore this sub request. This is not a unnecessary delay.

I'd like to see the video to see just how this played out.If the request was whistle in this scenario do we jump straight to delay?

There was no whistle by the R2. The R1 did indeed call a service fault, much to the chagrin of Wisconsin's coach.

Yes.