• Participants must be 18 years of age or older.
• All participants must read, sign, and submit the waiver form before playing or your team will be subject to default.
• Teams must be comprised of 6 to 10 players. 6 players must be on the court, minimum of two women. Teams not meeting this requirement will be subject to default.
• Team captains to flip coin before game.  Horn to determine serve or side.  HOPE may invoke a mid-game side change depending on court conditions.
• Game starts when horn blown, 1 minute grace period from starting horn after which a default score is recorded.  Team captains may elect to play an exhibition game thereafter and should clarify exhibition status before exhibition play begins.
• Tournament ball, as provided by HOPE, to be used for game play unless both team captains agree to use alternate ball.
• Spiking will not be permitted in the Beginner Division, where spiking is defined as a forceful hitting of the ball in a downward direction.  where. A normal overhead serve is permitted.
• No jump-spike serving except in Competitive Division.
• Serves cannot be blocked.
• Any part of your body may be used to keep the ball in play.
• Points are awarded on every serve (i.e. rally points).
• Team captains responsible for confirming score as game progresses.
• Teams must rotate properly clockwise (the 3 back row players cannot block and cannot spike from above the height of the net within 3 meters from the net) i.e.- you cannot position your tall player at the net every time to spike and block
• Teams must be in legal position at the time of serve/serve receive
• Volleys on serve receive are legal.
• Open handed tips are legal.
• Blocks do not count as a contact.
• Volleys across the net are legal.
• Volleying on defense is legal (does not have to be hard driven.)
• After five consecutive points, the serving team must rotate to the next server (N/A in the Competitive Division).
• Each game will stop at the earlier of (a) the sound of the whistle (14 minutes), or (b) the first to 25 points (or more) by 2.
• Once the end of the game has been announced, do not serve the ball. If the ball is in play at that time, finish the play.
• The score for each game must be reported to the scoring table by both the team captains after each game.  Team captains are responsible for confirming team scores prior to start of playoffs for accuracy.  Once the playoff seedings are determined the playoff schedule cannot be changed, even if an error was recorded by the scorers or the teams on regular tournament games.
• Game results will be tabulated as follows:
• Loss = 0 Points
  Tie = 1 Point
  Win = 2 Points
  Default = 2 points and scores 25 - 13
• A team’s total points scored, less the total points scored against the team (for/against), will also be used to rank the teams. (For example: A final score of 25 – 21 scores: 2 points and +4 for the wining team, and 0 points and –4 for the losing team.)
• Teams will referee their own games.
• Common volleyball rules will apply including the items noted above or with the above noted exceptions. Any questions regarding these rules should be directed to the registration/scoring registration table.
• HAVE FUN!!!

Competitive Divisions – All OVA rules apply in addition to the general rules noted above.  Non-playing competitive teams will be required to referee playing games as determined by HOPE.

Play-Offs
The intent of HOPE Volleyball is for everyone to have lots of fun. In that spirit we have maximized the games played and opted for a shorter round of playoffs. At the end of the round-robin teams will be ranked buy total points and then by for/against. The top 8 teams in each division (not court) will advance to the divisional playoffs. Should the top 8 not capture all of the team with 12 points (i.e. teams that won all of their games) then a round of 16 will be added to the playoffs. The structure of the playoffs for the Corporate and Competitive division is to be determined.

Disputes
Please keep in mind that this is a fun tournament for charity and we have tried to keep the rules simple. For the Competitive division, referees are provided and they will adjudicate any disputes. For Corporate, Intermediate, Recreational, and Beginner divisions we ask that you referee your own games. Should a dispute arise, the team captains, and only the team captains, will discuss the situation. If they are unable to quickly agree, replay the point if time permits. You will not be permitted additional playing time because of a dispute.