Nov 14, 2026 · Sporting Chance Center

Tournament FAQs& Rules

Everything captains and players need to know before Saturday, November 14, 2026. We follow the USAV rule book unless otherwise stated below.

The basics

Every team is assigned working-match duties at some point during the tournament.
Players must be 18 or older by the day of the tournament.
A team's spot is locked in once every rostered player has confirmed and paid their registration fee.
Jerseys aren't required, but liberos should wear a shirt that contrasts with the rest of the team.
Each player signs up and pays their own registration — captains don't cover teammates.
Only standard legal substitutions are permitted (no full-time liberos, middles, or similar).

Coed 6 requirements

Four male-identifying and two female-identifying players must be on the court at all times.

Exception: You can briefly play five males during a half rotation — this covers the window when your female-identifying libero is subbed out for a serving male-identifying player.

Tournament rules

We follow the USAV rule book unless otherwise stated.

Forfeits

A team that isn't fully present at the scheduled match time forfeits the first set.
If they're still short 10 minutes after match time, they forfeit the second set and the match is recorded as a loss.

Working

When your team is on "working" duty, you need to provide 2 line judges, 1 scorekeeper, and 1 referee.
Arriving late to your working match costs you set 1 of your next match as a forfeit.
The referee oversees the coin toss at the start of the match.
The referee is also responsible for marking the scores on the scoresheet.

Warm-up

The listed match time is when play begins — finish all warm-ups before the scheduled start.
Whenever court space allows, teams will share warm-up time before each match.

Serving

Captains meet for a coin toss to kick off every match.
The coin-toss winner gets to choose either first serve or which side of the court to start on.
The team that didn't serve first in the opening game serves first in the second.
If the match is split 1-1, a second coin toss decides who serves the third game.
Teams switch sides after each game.
Each player gets one re-serve per rotation, and the ball may be either caught or dropped.

Time-outs

Each team may use one 30-second timeout per set.
The break between sets won't run longer than 2 minutes.

Bracket scoring

Matches are best two of three sets using rally scoring.
A set goes to 25 and must be won by 2 — there's a hard cap at 27, so a 26-26 tie goes to whoever scores the next point.
A third set to 15 (capped at 17) is only played if the match is split.
The championship final in each bracket has no point cap.

Sportsmanship policy

This is big. We want intense competition — sometimes that comes with intense frustration. We expect you to handle that frustration without:

Talking down to your teammates
Talking down to the opposing team
Excessive yelling, profanity or otherwise
Talking down to or yelling at your referee — whether that's a fellow player or one of our certified officials

Only the captain may address the referees.

You'll get one “cool off” warning, then you will be asked to leave the tournament.

Still have questions?

Email us at info@sonoranvolleyball.com and we'll get back to you before game day.