Wednesday, October 12, 2005

By Crystal Parker
SJSports Staff Writer

Lately, our volleyball expert has been getting quite a few questions about volleyball for middle school competition as well as at the high school level. What does the phrase “term of serve” mean? What is considered a block? What are the dimensions of the court? And then there's the ever popular, how high is the net questions. On this site, a page has been dedicated to answer those questions and more. Some of the questions have already been answered on the "Ask The Volleyball Ref" page and some have not. But the one question has been answered already and the answer is yes, volleyball is still a very popular sport in this area.

Below are the answers to just a few questions that have been posted on our page. You can find the answers to many of your question by clicking on the "Ask the Experts" link on the home page.

Question: What is the official height of the volleyball net for high school girls?
Answer: The net height for High School Girl's is 7 feet 4 and 1/8 inches.

Question: What is the regulation height for the net for men?
Answer: The men's net height is 7 feet 11 5/8 inches.

Question: What the dimensions of a court for middle school girls and also the height of the net and the distance the serving line is from the net?
Answer: The court dimensions used for middle school play should be identical to the Federation rule book. The court is 59 feet long and 29 feet 6 inches wide. It is divided equally so each side is 29 feet 6 inches long and wide. The net height for girls would be 7 feet 4 and 1/8 inches.

Question: What does the phrase "term of serve" mean?
Answer: The phrase "term of service" comes out of the Federation Rule book. When a team gets the serve, they have begun their "term of service". This term ends when a side out occurs. A player's term of service begins when they start to serve. It can end if they are substituted for or on a side out. However, it can continue if they re-enter the game during the same term of service for their team. In Federation each player is allowed only one re-toss during their term of service. Thus, once used they would not be allowed to do it again until they rotated 6 places back to the server's position.

There are plenty of answers to even more questions about the service line, blocking, hitting, diameter of the volleyball and service faults. The people who volunteer to answer these questions takes the time out reading each and every question sent. But before you send those questions, take the time out yourself to visit the "Ask the Experts" page...your question may have already been answered.