National Federation Volleyball Rules

Volleyball is a sport played all over the country in colleges, middle and high schools and by club teams. International competition for volleyball is governed by specific rules, but the National Federation of State High School Associations has adopted its own rules; rules it feels better enable young men and women to learn the sport, while continuing to pursue the game for fun. Some differences between high school and international play are: rally scoring in high school, the libero position can serve the ball in the high school game and teams only need to get to 25 points in the first four sets to win.

  1. Court, net and ball

    • Each volleyball court must be 29.5 feet wide by 59 feet long. A 40-inch net is placed in the middle of the court, dividing the play area into two equal rectangles. The top of the net is 7 feet 11 5/8 inches above the center of the court for high school boys' volleyball games and 7 feet 4 1/8 inches above the net for high school girls' volleyball games. A 26-inch diameter ball that weighs about .60 lb. is used.

      A line 10 feet from the net divides the back row from the front row. There are six players on the court and each is responsible for a quadrant. Each person must start the game in a quadrant and may only move after the serve.

    Game play

    • A player serves the ball over the net and the opposing team is given three hits to return it back over the net. Ideally, the first player to touch the ball after the serve, digs the ball out from a low angle, the second player sets the ball up near the net and the third player, who is usually playing in the front row attempts to spike the ball as hard as possible over the net. After every play, the players huddle briefly to exchange high-fives and talk strategy.

    Libero

    • In high school, the special player designated as the libero must wear a different color jersey than the rest of the team. The libero is allowed to play only in the back as a defensive player; however he or she is allowed to rotate into the service spot. Players rotate counter clockwise each time after a side out. A side out is when the serving team loses the serve through an error. An error can be when a ball goes out of bounds, hits the ground in the serving team's quadrant or is hit by too many players.

    Scoring

    • Matches are decided by best of-three-sets scoring. The first team to reach 25 points and win by at least two points wins the set. High schools use rally scoring, which means that every time a ball is put into play someone will score a point--as opposed to only the serving team being allowed to score.

    Substitutions

    • Teams are limited to 12 substitutions per game, except that the libero can substitute for a player in the back row at any time and it does not count against the substitutions number. Teams are also allowed two timeouts per set.