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
Serving Up District Volleyball Results
November 3, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The MHSAA volleyball tournament begins today with 169 District matches over four classes.
Stay up to the moment on every result and future matchup on MHSAA.com.
Be sure to click on MHSAA Score Center throughout tonight and this week for scores as we receive them, and see brackets updated real-time with next game information for every class. (See the "view class" menu in the upper right-hand corner of the brackets page to switch between classes, and click the rectangles within the "bracket navigation" box to switch among District tournaments.)
The volleyball season will conclude Nov. 22 at Battle Creek's Kellogg Arena. All four Finals will be covered on Second Half, with a preview of all 16 semifinalists published Nov. 19.
PHOTO: Saginaw Valley Lutheran finished runner-up at the Tri-Valley Conference all-division tournament Saturday, to North Branch. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)