How to Do a Bracket for a Volleyball Tournament

Putting together a bracket for a volleyball tournament is relatively simple when trying to put together an even competition. However, when you have teams that may be travelling or have other obligations besides your tournament, you may have to change starting times or even opponents.

Instructions

    • 1

      Decide on the teams that will be coming to your invitational tournament. You want to have a competitive event and you want teams with great skills. Make a list of the top 8 or 16 teams in your area and call their coaches or athletic directors to tell them what you are doing and see if they would be interested in coming. If you get great response, you can organize a 16-team tournament. If you get good response, make it an 8-team tournament.

    • 2

      Figure out how many days your tournament will run. If you have a 16-team tournament, you will need four or five days to run it. If you have an 8-team tournament, you will need three or four days to run it. Make sure your gym is available for the dates you need and then you can make up your brackets.

    • 3

      In a 16-team tournament, you will have two brackets with eight teams each. If you have teams from two geographical regions, you can have two brackets based on north and south or east and west. Have the No. 1 team play the No. 8 team, the No. 2 team play the No. 7 team, the No. 3 team play the No. 6 team and the No. 4 team play the No. 5 team in each side of the bracket. If there are no geographic divisions, make a list ranking the the teams 1 through 16. Have the No. 1 team in side A of the bracket and the No. 2 team in side B. Alternate that way as you go down the list of participants.

    • 4

      Play four matches in the first day of your tournament, two in the second day and two more (championship and third-place game) in an eight-team tournament. In a 16-team tournament, play four matches the first day, four the second day, two the third day and two more (championship nd third-place game) on the fourth day.

    • 5

      Hold a dinner or championship ceremony after the final game. You will want to give a championship trophy to the winning team as well as trophies to the top four teams. You will also want to give out individual awards to the top players who participated.