Scorekeeper's Guide to USA Volleyball 16U Club Volleyball 2025-27

From the 2025-27 USA Volleyball Scoring Instructions:

National Scorers must use ink for everything.

Format rules

• Use printed CAPITAL letters for everything except signatures.
• Dates: MM/DD/YY (or MM-DD-YY) with leading zeros.
• Times: 24-hour HH:MM (9:10 AM = 09:10, 1:15 PM = 13:15).
• When an entry needs both scores (timeouts, substitutions, sanctions, remarks), write the score of the team causing the action first.
• Fix mistakes immediately with correction tape, an eraser, or an X through the wrong entry.

Prepare sheets for sets 1 and 2 (best of 3) or sets 1-3 (best of 5 or an automatic 3-set match). In ink:

1. Headings if not pre-printed: competition, city/state, facility, pool or playoff bracket, division, match number, level, team names ("TEAM vs TEAM"), date, court and scheduled time.
2. Officials' names as LAST, FIRST: 1st referee, 2nd referee, scorer, plus the work team name and its region code.
3. Team A/B: after the coin toss, the team starting set 1 on the left is Team A and keeps that letter for the whole match. Write team names on the matching sides; for set 2 they swap sides, and so on for each non-deciding set.
4. Serve/receive: X through the S for the team serving first, and X through the R for the receiving team, plus an X in box 1 of the receiving team's SERVICE ROUNDS for its position I player.
5. Captain: the roster team captain's number in the Captain box, or an X if there's no roster or no designated captain.
6. Starting lineups and libero numbers from the lineup sheets.
7. Start time when the 1st referee whistles for the first serve, in 24-hour time.

If a set doesn't start at 0-0, cross off the unused points with a T-bar.

When you receive each team's lineup sheet:

• Don't let either team see the other's lineup.
• Check that a coach or team captain signed it.
• Check the libero(s) are listed (zero, one or two). Put an X in any empty libero box on the score sheet.
• Check a game captain is marked with a "C" (an alternate may be marked "A"). If the roster's team captain starts, they must be game captain.
• Check there are no duplicate numbers among the starters and liberos, and that numbers match the roster if rosters are used.
• Return an incomplete or inaccurate sheet to the 2nd referee immediately. If a lineup sheet doesn't arrive on time, tell the 2nd referee right away.

Then record the starters' numbers in the SERVICE ORDER boxes, matching each Roman numeral on the lineup sheet to the same numeral on the score sheet.

Lineup check: as the 2nd referee checks positions on court, confirm the right numbers are on the court in the right service order, and report any discrepancy. After the lineup sheet is submitted, numbers can't change except to fix a duplicate before the set starts. Substitutions are allowed before a set starts and count for that set.

USA Volleyball sheets track points in each team's POINTS column and each server's turn in the SERVICE ROUNDS boxes.

• First serve of a turn: put a small checkmark through the number in the corner of the SERVICE ROUNDS box under the server. Use one box for that player's whole term of service.
• Serving team wins the rally: slash the next point in the serving team's POINTS column.
• Receiving team wins the rally:
  1. Write the serving team's exit score (its total points) in the checked SERVICE ROUNDS box.
  2. Slash the rally point in the receiving team's POINTS column. It is one more than that team's previous exit score, unless points were removed.
• Libero serving: the first time a libero serves in the set, draw a triangle around that Service Order Roman numeral. Points won on a libero's serve are triangled in the POINTS column.
• Rally replayed (for example, outside interference): record nothing, and check the scoreboard wasn't changed.
• No checkmark for a first serve that's a wrong server, a time violation, or a set point awarded to the receiving team on loss of rally.
• Time violation (no serve within 8 seconds): record the exit score in that server's box. No remark or sanction.

Limits: each team has 15 substitutions per set under the 2025-27 rules (an event can reduce this). A substitute may enter any number of times within that limit, but always in the same rotation position.

Before recording, confirm it's legal. The substitute must be on the roster (if rosters are used), enter the correct position, and not have been replaced by an exceptional substitution, declared unable to play, expelled this set or disqualified this match. Tell the 2nd referee right away if it isn't legal.

Three actions for each substitution

1. In the first open row of SCORE AT SUBSTITUTION under the exiting player's position, write the entering player's number in the left box.
2. Write the score in the right box, the substituting team's score first.
3. Slash the next unslashed number in that team's Substitutions row.

Then:

• Tell the 2nd referee when a team uses its 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th substitutions.
• Give the ready signal. For several substitutions by one team, record each pair separately, then signal once.
• If both teams substitute, record them in the order the 2nd referee authorized, and signal once for each side.

Exceptional substitution (injured, expelled or disqualified player with no legal substitute): circle the injured player's number, record the incoming player, don't record a score or slash a substitution (it doesn't count toward the 15), and write it in REMARKS ("EX SUB").

• Each team has two 30-second timeouts per set.
• Record the score at the time of the timeout in the TIME-OUTS box under that team's POINTS column: first timeout in the top box, second in the lower box.
• Write the score of the team taking the timeout first (for example, Team B takes a timeout at 10-5 in its favor: record 10:5).
• Immediately after recording, visually signal the number of timeouts each team has taken to the 2nd referee.
• At the end of the timeout, give the ready signal (both hands raised, palms forward).
• The 2nd referee tells the coach when a team has taken its second timeout and lets the 1st referee know.

A request for a third timeout in a set is an improper request: notify the referees.

The assistant scorer sits beside the scorer, keeps the Libero Control Sheet, and takes over if the scorer can't continue.

Set-up

• Record team names (matching the score sheet) and each team's starting lineup in the Starting Players column.
• Record the liberos in the L box (and R box for a second libero) for set 1; put an X in any empty box.

During play

• Libero replacement: write L or R next to the number of the player the libero replaced. When that player comes back, write their number next to the L or R. Never use slashes for libero replacements.
• Substitution: slash the exiting player's number and write the substitute's number to its right.
• First libero serve: draw a triangle around that position's Roman numeral. Both liberos must serve in that same position.
• Libero replacements are unlimited and don't count as substitutions, but there must be a completed rally between two replacements (exceptions: injury, a penalty-forced rotation, or the libero replacing the right-back player to serve).

Telling the 2nd referee

• Report an illegal libero replacement immediately, ideally before the serve.
• After every timeout and the deciding-set court change, signal each team's libero status: hand over the table, palm down = libero on court; hand up, palm toward your shoulder = libero off court (left hand for the left court, right hand for the right).
• When asked, say which libero (L or R) is on the court.

Use the SANCTIONS box. For each entry record the sanction, the player number or bench personnel code, the team (A or B), the set number and the score at the time.

• If a penalty is against the serving team, record the serving team's exit score.
• Improper request (no card): mark an X over that team's A or B in the IMPROPER REQUEST box.
• Copy all sanctions and improper requests onto every later set's score sheet in the match.

Wrong server (rotation fault)

• Check that the correct server has the ball every time a player enters the service zone.
• If the wrong player is about to serve, wait until they contact the ball, then immediately notify the 2nd referee.
• Record the exit score in the SERVICE ROUNDS box of the player who should have served. No checkmark, sanction or remark for the fault itself.

Removing points (wrong or illegal player, rotation fault, illegal substitution, illegal libero replacement)

• If the fault is found before the opponent serves, points scored after the fault are cancelled. If it can't be determined when the fault began, or the opponent has already served, the only penalty is loss of rally.
• Remove points only at the referees' direction, note it in REMARKS, and restore any penalty points that were removed.
• If the team at fault was serving, the opponent gets a point and the serve.

Correcting your own errors
Correct wrong information immediately, using correction tape, an eraser or an X through it.

Scoreboard
The assistant scorer checks that the scoreboards agree with the score sheet. After a replayed rally, record nothing and make sure no point was added on the scoreboard.

Deciding set with a court change: tell the 2nd referee when either team's next point would cause the court change (point 8 in a set to 15, or 13 in a 25-point playoff set), and again when it's scored. Then check that the scoreboard has been switched.

You also use the buzzer or sound device to acknowledge and announce substitution requests and to flag irregularities, such as an out-of-order request.

When the final point is scored

1. Slash the final point and cross your forearms in front of your chest to signal the end of the set.
2. From here on, use blue or black ink.
3. Record the end time (when the 1st referee signals the end of the set) and circle both teams' final exit scores.
4. Cancel unused points in the POINTS columns with the T-bar (a horizontal line under the last point, then a vertical line down through the rest; strike any fully unused column top to bottom). Don't circle the final point unless it was a penalty point.
5. Enter the winning and losing team names and scores in SET RESULTS.
6. Review: start/end times, substitution counts agree, and final exit score, last point and set result all match.
7. Sign the score sheet (on a two-set sheet, after the second set is reviewed).
8. Copy any sanctions and relevant remarks onto the next set's sheet.

At the end of the match

• Record the MATCH WINNER and sets won and lost on every sheet used (write SPLIT/TIED if the format allows a 1-1 result).
• Help the 1st referee review and sign all sheets.
• Handle the completed sheets as tournament management instructs, then discard lineup sheets and the libero control sheet and clear the table.

Team without six players at match time

1. It forfeits the first set at match time.
2. It gets up to 10 minutes to produce six players for the next set. If it can't, the second set is forfeited.
3. In a best-of-3 match, that forfeits the match. In a best-of-5 or automatic 3-set match, another 10-minute interval is given; if there are still not six, the third set and the match are forfeited.

Team in default (refuses to play, or doesn't appear on court on time)
It forfeits the match: 0-2 (best of 3) or 0-3 (best of 5), with every set scored 0-25, including any sets already completed.

Team declared incomplete for a set or match
It keeps all points and sets it has won; the opponent gets the points (and sets) needed to win.

Recording an unplayed set
Fill in what's available (teams, serve/receive, lineups, liberos, captains), record the start and end times, write "----- FORFEIT -----" across the whole sheet, and don't slash, circle or cancel any points. If the whole match is forfeited before the first serve, record headings and officials, mark set 1 as a forfeit, and explain the circumstances in REMARKS.