Ask Dave Taylor
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • YouTube Videos
  • Top Categories
  • Subscribe via Email
  • Ask A Question
  • Meet Dave
  • Home
  • d) None of the Above
  • How do you score middle school volleyball games?

How do you score middle school volleyball games?

September 16, 2010 / Dave Taylor / d) None of the Above / 1 Comment

Quite different from your usual questions, Dave, but can you explain how to score a middle school volleyball match that’s part of tournament play? I ask because I believe you have a daughter who plays volleyball, so I figure you might have had to figure this one out…

My middle school daughter is on the school volleyball team and I have indeed been dragooned more than once to score a match, even as I continually puzzle over the complex scoring and score pages that are used. You can buy a volleyball scorebook for just a few dollars — like this one — and they have instructions, but they don’t differentiate middle school volleyball from high school play.

Since I’ve got 90% of it down after a season of trying to figure everything out, I figure why not share that here, so you can learn about this arcane stuff too?

Ready? Roll up your sleeves, this is pretty complicated…

Volleyball is scored with a special score book that’s a complex grid with a bunch of specific areas and sections. Here’s an overview:

volleyball scoring blank across
That’s the basic grid in which you are going to score the game. The left side is one team, the right side the other, and in the middle is a vertical score tracking table. Let’s zoom in to each section so we know what’s there.

volleyball scoring closeup 1
This is the left side. Down the left you write the number of each of the starting players: it has to be in the same order as they’re going to be on the court, so that the “I” slot is the first server, “II” is the second, and so on. In this case, you can see #10 is going to serve first, and the little “c” next to the 13? That indicates that they’re the team captain.

In the middle of the grid is a place to track score: you simply cross off each number as the team scores, with the winner the first to get to 25 points and simultaneously 2-points ahead of the competition (in other words, 25 v 24 is not a win, but 26 v 24 is):

volleyball scoring middle
In middle school volleyball, each serve produces a point (in pro-level volleyball a team must have a successful serve before subsequent serves can score a point). Each point is written on the line of the particular player, and when there’s a turnover, write a “–” for the player who lost the point and then write the sequential point value for the other team on their side of the score grid.

Here’s a full and complete grid after a game:

volleyball score results
The team scored on the left won the match, with 25 points. The team on the right scored 15 points. Why are some scores written in gray while others are written in red? Standard convention: the second time through the positions you switch pencils, then the third time you go back to a regular pencil. Just a notational convention, not a huge big deal.

Let me show a close-up of one side of the score pad, since there’s more to notice:

volleyball scoring 1.JPG
Look along the bottom. See “Subs” and 1, 2, and 3 crossed out? That’s how you keep track of the number of substitutions each team has during a match. They are allowed a max of 18 total, though in my experience 4-6 is more typical.

Each time there’s a player substitution, the number of the player departing the court is crossed out and the number of the new player is noted. In “I” you can see that player #40 substituted for player #44. As is typical for middle school games, there are a ton of turn-overs, so it’s quite common to see a point, turnover, point for the other team, turnover, back and forth.

Note that player #33 was the star of the match: they scored points 20-25, winning the match entirely.

One more thing to note: when there’s a time-out, you write the score at that point in the match on the small box near the top. For this team, there was only one time-out and the score was 10-16. There’s a diagonal line written across a score box that shows where in the match we were when the time-out happened, but my impression is that’s optional.

So that’s the basics of scoring middle school volleyball. You keep track of players, timeouts, substitutions, who scored and what they scored. Tricky, eh?

About the Author: Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since the early days of the Internet. Author of over 20 technical books, he runs the popular AskDaveTaylor.com tech help site. You can also find his gadget reviews on YouTube and chat with him on Twitter as @DaveTaylor.

Let’s Stay In Touch!

Never miss a single article, review or tutorial here on AskDaveTaylor, sign up for my fun weekly newsletter!
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries
No spam, ever. Promise. Powered by FeedBlitz
Please choose a color:
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
middle school volleyball, msvb, scorebook, volleyball, volleyball scorebook, volleyball scoring

One comment on “How do you score middle school volleyball games?”

  1. Joel says:
    August 22, 2012 at 10:15 am

    Thank you very much for sharing this… will help me a lot.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Recent Posts

  • How to Enlarge Font Size in Apple’s Books App on the iPad
  • Chromebook Owner’s Guide to Antivirus & Anti-Malware Solutions
  • Everything You Need to Know about Apple’s Clean Energy Charging
  • How Can I Watch Free Classic Movies on my Windows PC?
  • How Can I Maximize Online Privacy with a VPN Connection?

On Our YouTube Channel

TWT Audio REVO TW310 Budget Headset -- DEMO & REVIEW

iClever Bluetooth 34-Key Number Pad Keyboard -- REVIEW

Categories

  • AdSense, AdWords, and PPC Help (106)
  • Amazon, eBay, and Online Shopping Help (164)
  • Android Help (228)
  • Apple iPad Help (148)
  • Apple Watch Help (53)
  • Articles, Tutorials, and Reviews (346)
  • Auto Tech Help (17)
  • Business Advice (200)
  • ChromeOS Help (34)
  • Computer & Internet Basics (782)
  • d) None of the Above (166)
  • Facebook Help (384)
  • Google, Chrome & Gmail Help (188)
  • HTML & Web Page Design (247)
  • Instagram Help (49)
  • iPhone & iOS Help (625)
  • iPod & MP3 Player Help (173)
  • Kindle & Nook Help (99)
  • LinkedIn Help (88)
  • Linux Help (174)
  • Linux Shell Script Programming (90)
  • Mac & MacOS Help (914)
  • Most Popular (16)
  • Outlook & Office 365 Help (33)
  • PayPal Help (68)
  • Pinterest Help (54)
  • Reddit Help (19)
  • SEO & Marketing (82)
  • Spam, Scams & Security (96)
  • Trade Show News & Updates (23)
  • Twitter Help (222)
  • Video Game Tips (66)
  • Web Site Traffic Tips (62)
  • Windows PC Help (951)
  • Wordpress Help (206)
  • Writing and Publishing (72)
  • YouTube Help (47)
  • YouTube Video Reviews (159)
  • Zoom, Skype & Video Chat Help (62)

Archives

Social Connections:

Ask Dave Taylor


Follow Me on Pinterest
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on LinkedIn
Follow me on Instagram


AskDaveTaylor on Facebook



microsoft insider mvp


This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to our terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. Our lawyer says "Thanks for your cooperation."
© 2023 by Dave Taylor. "Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.
Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions - Accessibility Policy