Co-ed Volleyball Tournament Information

Participating in coed volleyball tournaments offer athletes an opportunity to play their favorite sport with some of their closest friends regardless of gender. Whether playing on the sand courts at the beach, grass courts at the parks, or on an indoor court at the gym, coed volleyball tournaments provide a challenging level of play for recreational and competitive players. The coed design encourages fair play and welcomes volleyball players of all abilities.

  1. Rules

    • Co-ed rules ensure that females participate equally during offensive rallies.

      Rules of play slightly vary from site to site, however a standard set of guidelines establish coed tournament play. Athletes can choose competition in doubles, quads or a six-person team. A minimum of two female athletes for quads or six-person teams becomes necessary in most tournaments. However some tournaments require an equal amount of female and male players on a six-person team. During rallies when the ball is played more than once by a team, a female must make at least one of the contacts, if not the penalty is a sideout. Matches consist of three games with rally scoring. The first two games play up to 25 and the third plays up to 15. In addition serving order must be alternate between female and male players.

    Intramural Sports

    • Intramural sports offer college students an opportunity to play co-ed sand volleyball.

      Athletes in colleges and universities can participate in coed volleyball tournament through the intramural sports programs. Colleges such as Rice University, Pacific University and Washington State University are only a few of the many educational institutions that offer 4-on-4 coed sand volleyball tournament for its students. The first two games in sand play go up to 21 points, the tie-breaker if necessary goes up to 15. Colleges and universities also offer indoor coed tournaments with round-robin style of play.

    Local Tournaments

    • The Southern and Northern California Volleyball Associations (SCVA & NCVA) and parks and recreation departments across the country host coed qualifying tournaments for adults. Depending on the number of teams entered, the tournament follows a round-robin or pool-play format. The SCVA and NCVA operate one-day qualifiers, four-league tournaments and a region championship. In addition some foundations, such as the Snafu Coed 4s Beach Volleyball Benefit Tournament for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Spike for the Cure Co-Ed 6 Volleyball Tournament to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, offer athletes an opportunity to play volleyball for a good cause.

    Grass Courts

    • The Florida Grass Court Volleyball Series presents 4-player coed tournaments, which features a father-daughter division. This event allows for semi-professional and recreational players to compete in their respective divisions. The father-daughter tournament presents a unique opportunity that encourages families to participate in the sport of volleyball. In this division, a minimum of two kids, girls or boys 14-and-younger, and a maximum of two adults, form a team. When the ball is played more than once by a team, a child must make at least one of the contacts. In addition for this type of tournament, adults may not hit or block the ball, but hand pass or bump it across the net.

    Background

    • The United States Volleyball Association (USVA) created a semi-professional coed volleyball league in the mid 1970s. The six-person team consisted of two female and four male players that remained in designated positions throughout the match. However each player served the ball according to the established serving order. The Canadian Volleyball Association presented this format at the International Scientific Symposium in Toronto in 1979. However throughout the years it became apparent that males performed all the offensive attacks and blocking at the net, while the female players handled most of the back-row defense and digging. Therefore new rules and formats evolved, which eventually established the equal-level of play that exists today.