Teams will only call fouls committed by their own players. Players will not call the fouls against their opponents. If there is a dispute on a call, re-serve the play. Contact the on-site staff for clarification of rules after the match is completed.
There are NO court position restrictions or requirements in 4’s beach volleyball, but service rotation must remain the same throughout a single game. For example, players can stay in the same court position an entire game (at the net/back row etc.), but each player MUST serve in the same service rotation for the entire game.
All players will conduct themselves in a polite and sportsmanlike manner. Individuals who do not abide by these criteria will face disciplinary action and risk being removed from the league.
All balls must be hit cleanly. No scooping or carrying the ball. Only off of a driven ball may a ball be legally double-hit (i.e. off arm and head in one continuous motion).
Contact with the net (except for hair) in any way constitutes loss of point. A player that goes under the net but does not contact the net or interfere with the play is okay. *Note- if the wind pushes the net into a player, then this will not be considered a foul and play should proceed.
A served ball may not be blocked, spiked or volleyed directly back over the net.
A served ball may be received by volleying the ball, provided it is not volleyed directly back over the net (i.e. the ball may be volleyed to another member of the receiving team).
A block or partial block does not count as one of a team’s 3 hits.
The ball may be played by any part of the body.
No open-handed tipping: Players who contact the ball with one hand and are putting the ball over the net must cleanly hit with the heel or palm of hand (a roll shot), with straight, locked fingers and a locked wrist (a cobra), knurled fingers (a camel toe), or with the back of the hand (locked wrist and locked fingers/knuckles. One handed placement or redirection of the ball with the fingers (dink or open-handed tip) is a fault.
If a player is going to play the ball into the opponent's court by setting or volleying, the player must contact the ball with 2 hands above the shoulders and it must be set directly forward or backward in relation to the player's body (shoulders and hips should be in the same position from prior to the set happening). NO DUMPING! This applies even if it is the team’s 3rd hit.
Both teams are responsible for recording matches won/lost and UR Fun points and submitting the score sheets to the on-site staff– Failure to do so will result in an the team being assigned zero points and zero wins.
*** Please Note there has been a change to the point penalty rule that gets applied if a team does not have the required number of males or females on the court***
A full starting lineup has 4 players with at least 2 women and 1 man
if a team has less than 2 players it defaults the match
if a team has 2 or 3 players but does NOT have at least 1 of each gender, it is a default
if a team has 2 or 3 players with at least one member of each gender, the match counts but a point penalty applies: 4 points in each of the first two games of the match and 3 points in the third game of the match. Note- the point penalty applies to LEAGUE PLAY ONLY (not applicable in tournaments)
Team captains can add as many subs as they want to their rosters, so it is recommended that they take advantage of this to avoid having their team show up with less than a full lineup.
LEAGUE PLAY STRUCTURE-
- The first week of play may be a seeding week. Teams will play five 20-minute games with no cap on points. Whichever team is winning when time expires (as indicated by a whistle from the on-site staff) will win the game. Teams may be re-seeded from one pool to another based on the results of this night. Teams will again be re-seeded if necessary after the 4th week of play.
- Regular league play will consist of 3 matches. Best 2 of 3 (21/21/15) Games are all rally point, win by 2 points, cap at 23 (cap at 17 in the 3rd match. Matches will be over when a team wins 2 games or time expires. If time expires (signified by the whistleblowing) while teams are playing in the 3rd game, at least 1 of the teams must have at least 5 points for the game to count. If neither team has at least 5 points, then the game does not count in the match results, and the match is reported as a 1-1 draw.
- If time expires while teams are playing the 3rd game (the tiebreaker), at least one of the teams must have reached 5 points for the 3rd game to count. Otherwise the match will be reported as a 1-game-apiece draw.
Team standings will be based on sets won/lost, not matches (although you will have more sets in the win column if you win more matches, obviously). Tiebreakers in the standings will be most wins in division, fewer losses in division, UR fun point average, then head-to-head record.
The playoffs will occur over the last week (or 2 if necessary) of the season. Generally, for leagues with 10-team pools, the final match of second-last week will be the first round of the playoffs, with the remaining playoff rounds being on the final week. Each match will be the same as regular season matches (21/21/15 capped at 2 points over the maximum). If time expires during the 3rd set, whichever team is winning at that point will win the match (no 5-point minimum required). If time expires during the 2nd set, then total points scored in the 2 sets to that point will determine the winner of the match.
TOURNAMENT PLAY STRUCTURE
- teams will begin tournament play by playing seeding matches (usually 4 or 5), each of which will consist of a single timed set (normally 20-25 minutes each) with no cap on points. At the end of each seeding match, teams will report their scores, and once all the seeding matches are complete, teams will be ranked according to their win/loss record as well as by the net difference in their total points scored vs scored against in their seeding matches.
- based on the above results, teams may be reseeded from one pool to another at the onsite Urban Rec staff’s discretion. Reseeding may also be done during the seeding round if warranted at Urban Rec’s discretion.
- after reseeding, teams will begin the playoff rounds. All matches in the playoffs are best 2-of-3 sets. The first two sets are played to 21 (hard cap at 23), third set to 15 (hard cap at 17). Note that if time expires before teams are unable to complete the match, the winner is determined by whoever is leading the 3rd set at the time (no 5-point minimum required) or whoever has the greater aggregate score from the first 2 sets if the match is still in the 2nd set or has not started the 3rd set yet.
- teams that win in the playoffs move on to the next round; teams that lose will have at least one consolation match scheduled.
