Be the Referee: Minimum Number of Volleyball Players
By
Paige Winne
MHSAA Director of Brand Management
September 29, 2026
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Minimum Number of Volleyball Players - Listen
We’re on the volleyball court today, where the home team starts the match with only six players.
Midway through the first set, one of those six players suffers an ankle injury and can’t continue – leaving the home team with just five players.
What should happen?
Is the home team forced to default the match for not having enough players?
Does the home team just continue playing with five?
Or do they continue playing with five, but with the loss of rally or point every time the player lost to injury’s position rotates to serve?
If you said they can continue playing but lose a rally or point every time the injured player’s position rotates to serve, you are correct!
A minimum of six is needed to start – but you can finish a match with fewer than that.
Previous 2026-27 editions
Sept 22: Soccer Changes - Listen
Sept: 15: Dead Ball Penalty - Listen
Sept. 8: Libero Ejected - Listen
Sept. 1: Soccer Foul After Shot on Goal - Listen
Aug. 25: Fumble Out of Bounds - Listen
Watch Regionals Live on MHSAA.tv, FSN
November 11, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Regional play in two MHSAA tournaments will be featured this week on MHSAA.tv and FoxSportsDetroit.com with 10 games in volleyball and football.
Volleyball
Regional Semifinal coverage takes place today at two locations (coverage available with subscription):
Class A at Mason
DeWitt v. Ann Arbor Huron, 5 p.m.
Mason v. Portage Central, 7 p.m.
Class C at Morley-Stanwood
Shelby v. Morley-Stanwood, 6 p.m.
Ravenna v. Laingsburg, 8 p.m.
Football
MHSAA.tv also will cover two football playoff games live Saturday in advance of covering 12 Semifinal games on Nov. 22.
Here’s this week’s Regional Final schedule (with subscription):
- Division 1 – Clinton Township Chippewa Valley at Detroit Cass Tech, 1 p.m.
- Division 6 – Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central v. Jackson Lumen Christi at Withington Stadium, 7 p.m.
A Day Pass subscription to MHSAA.tv is $9.95. A Month Pass subscription is $14.95, enabling purchasers to watch all of this week’s action plus two more weeks of coverage of the Girls Volleyball Tournament, weekly Football Playoff coverage, and the Preliminaries and Finals of the Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals.
All events become available for free on demand viewing three days after the date of the contest.
NEW: Subscribers can clip highlights from on-demand events and share them with friends and fans through Facebook, Twitter or via email.
Click the box at right to learn how to capture favorite moments and share the excitement.
Prep Zone
It’s the fourth season for the popular PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com, which will provide free live coverage of four football playoff games again Friday:
- Division 1 – Canton at Saline
- Division 3 – Lowell at Zeeland West
- Division 4 – Whitehall v. Grand Rapids South Christian at Byron Center High School
- Division 8 – Baldwin at Beal City
All games kick off at 7 p.m., with short-term archives available on FoxSportsDetroit.com and long-term archives and DVDs available through MHSAA.tv.
Also, catch highlights of the following games on Football Friday Overtime at midnight Friday and again at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday on Fox Sports Detroit:
- Flint Powers at Lansing Catholic
- Redford Thurston at New Boston Huron
- Detroit Country Day at Chelsea
- PLUS – Prep Zone Games
MHSAA Highlights: This week's package includes five highlights from MHSAA postseason events that took place from Nov. 1-8 including the Cross Country and Boys Soccer Finals and Volleyball and Football Districts.
PHOTO: St. Louis sets up at the net on the way to winning its Class C District last week. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)