GENERAL

WAIVER OF LIABILITY

• All participants must agree to the Waiver of Liability. 
• The waiver can be accepted on each participant player’s dashboard. 
• A waiver must be signed for each league that is participated in.
• All participants in the league assume the risk of injury. The PSL, its volunteers, and employees shall not be liable for injury to person, loss or damage to personal property arising from or in any way resulting from participation in the league.

COVID PROTOCOLS

• All participants must sign and acknowledge our Covid-19 Waiver and Hold Harmless Agreement. 
• It is recommended that all players:
  • Wear masks
  • Social distance
  • Avoid gathering in large crowds before or after your games
  • Sanitize often
  • Conduct daily symptom assessments. Anyone experiencing symptoms or has come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 14 days must stay home.
• All participants must check-in with an official at each game with proof of identity that matches your roster name. 

SPORTSMANSHIP

• Unsportsmanlike conduct will not be tolerated.
• Any behavior that is deemed violent, harassing, and/or inappropriate in any way, as witnessed by the umpire, referee, or PUMP/PSL staff, will result in the actions outlined in our Sportsmanship Policy.
• A player who is ejected from a game must leave the premises immediately. Play will not resume until the ejected player has left the immediate area.
• Officials reserve the right to end a game at any point if the overall sportsmanship is out of line.
• Captains are to be the team liaison to discuss any call or rule with an official during game play.

WEATHER POLICY

• The decision to call a rainout will be made as early as possible and will be updated on our Rainout Line as per PSL policy.
• We will endeavor to play in mildly inclement weather. Rainouts will not be called unless conditions on the sand are extremely poor or the weather is deemed dangerous.
• Umpires have the jurisdiction to call a game due to darkness or weather at the beginning or during a game.   

ROSTERS & PLAYERS

SUBMITTING A ROSTER

• Each team must submit a roster with a minimum of 4 and maximum of 8 players.
• No player may register for more than 1 team within the same league without proper approval from the PSL. 
• Rosters must be submitted and waivers must be signed before any player may play.
• Rosters must be submitted by the date outlined in your registration email. 
• Rosters must be finalized and no changes are allowed after the second week of play.
  • Any changes after your first game must be emailed to PSL staff. 
• No player who is not on your roster and signed our waivers may play in the league.
• Only rostered players will be eligible for playoffs.

PLAYERS

• A team consists of 4 players, and there may never be more than 3 men on the court at one time.
  • As per our Inclusivity Statement, players should register and play in the way that most closely aligns with their gender identity. 
• A team may play with 3 players if necessary, but must have at least 1 gender minority player on the court.
• Teams are permitted to pick up a maximum of 1 player from another PSL sand volleyball team to avoid forfeiting their match.
• No team may use subs, PSL or otherwise, for playoffs.

GAME SCHEDULE

START TIME

• Matches will start at their scheduled time.
• If a team does not have enough players to start the match by 5 minutes after the scheduled start time, they will forfeit the first game.
• If enough players to start a game arrive between 5 and 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, the remaining 2 games will be played as scheduled.
• Once 10 minutes after the scheduled start time has passed, the match is recorded as a forfeit and the teams are allowed to use the remaining time to practice or organize a pickup game.
• Teams forfeiting 2 or more times during the regular season will be ineligible for playoffs.

GAME LENGTH

• A match shall consist of 3 games during the regular season.
• A game is over when one team scores 25 points (capped at 27).
• If time is running out, the referee may elect to play the 3^rd game to 15 points (capped at 17).
• The winning team must have at least a 2-point advantage. Play will continue until the cap is reached or a team has a 2-point advantage.
• Standings will be based on the number of games won, not the number of matches won.

RULES

PLAYING FIELD

• Standard volleyball court boundaries. 

GAME PLAY

• Rally scoring is used.
• Substitutions may be made any time the ball is dead.
• There is no limit on subs from your accepted roster.
• Each team is allowed 1 timeout per game (1 minute in length).
• A coin toss will be done between the 2 opposing captains before the start of the first game. The winner can choose to serve, receive, or which court to start the first game on. Roles are reversed at the beginning of the next 2 games.
• The serve is the act of putting the ball into play by the right back-row player who hits the ball with one hand or arm from the service zone (anywhere beyond the back line and within the 2 sidelines).
  • Authorization of the serve must be given to the server by the official before the serve may be hit.  Any serve that does not receive authorization will be consider dead and re-served.
  • Serves may be underhand or overhand, or can be jump-served.
  • Only one serve is allowed, but players may drop a bad toss once and still serve. There are no ‘re-serves’ if the ball should hit a post or go out of bounds.
• Players on the serving team must not screen the opponents from seeing the contact for service or the path of the ball, including but not limited to waiving arms, jumping, or moving sideways. The serving team is also prohibited from making a collective screen when the server is hidden behind two or more teammates and the ball is served over them.
• Blocking and attacking the serve is illegal.
  • “Attacking” = directing the ball at the opponent
  • “Attacking a serve” = a player completes an attack hit on the opponents' service when the ball is in the front zone and entirely higher than the top of the net
• Faults on the serve occur when:
  • The ball touches the net and drops on the serving teams side
  • The ball is passed under the net
  • The ball goes out of bounds
  • The ball touches a teammate before going over the net
• The order of the serving rotation may be changed only after a completed game.
• There are no positional faults in 4-person volleyball. Positional faults only apply to 6-person sand. A player can be at any location in the court at any time; i.e. you don’t have to rotate positions, although you do have to keep a “rotation” order for serves.
• Players can block or hit from any position on the court, i.e. there is no penalty for backrow hitting.
• No open hand dinks. When contacting the ball with one hand, it must be cleanly hit with the heel or palm of the hand (a roll shot), with straight, locked fingertips (a cobra), knurled fingers or the back of the hand from the wrist to the knuckles. One-handed placement or redirection of the ball with the fingers (a dink or open hand tip) is a fault.
• There is no visible middle line in sand obviously, so the rules for crossing under the net are somewhat lenient. Players may partially or completely cross the center line (with feet) below the net or outside the poles, either before, during or after a legal play of the ball, provided that this does not interfere with the opponent's play. Incidental contact with an opponent is ignored, unless such contact interferes with the opponent's opportunity to play the ball.
• When digging a hard-driven spike it can be double-hit and momentarily lifted. Open hand digs are acceptable.
• Blocking does not constitute a team contact, so you may contact the ball three more times after a block.
• You can play with all parts of the body, i.e. you can use your feet to dig the ball.
• When the ball is “set” into the opponent’s court, the player’s shoulders must be “squared up” to the net.

• The ball is out of bounds when it touches any surface, object, or group outside the court. A ball may be played from out-of-bounds from your own territory as long as it hasn’t touched any surface, object, or group outside the court. It is illegal to touch the opponent’s court in the act of playing the ball.
• Attack hits are all actions directing the ball towards an opponent once the ball has crossed the vertical plane or is touched by a blocker.
• An attack- hit is completed the moment the ball completely crosses the vertical plane of the net or is touched by a blocker.

LEGAL & ILLEGAL HITS

• The ball must be cleanly hit. The following constitutes a legal hit:
  • Contacting the ball with the heels of the hands, fists, or arms; feet are permitted for passing
  • A closed fist punching at the ball
• The following constitutes an illegal hit:
  • Ball visibly comes to rest
  • Held ball
  • Successive contacts by the same player
  • Using fingers for underhand hit
  • Attacking the serve

FAULTS

• The following types of faults can occur during an attempt to play the ball:
  • A player touching the top of the tape on the net
  • Touching of the net that directly affects the play
  • Hand or hands over top into opponent’s side of net in hitting the ball
  • A player takes support from a teammate or any other object in order to reach the ball
  • A team contacts the ball 4 times or more before returning it to the opponent’s side
  • Catching or throwing the ball; the ball must be tapped
  • Serve out of turn (loss of points scored by ineligible server)
  • A player contacts the ball twice in succession
  • The ball contacts various parts of the player’s body successively
    • exception: digging a hard driven spike
  • A player spikes the ball above the opponents’ court
  • A player receives a personal warning
  • A foot fault on a serve

BLOCKING

• A ball touched by a player playing close to the net and attempting to block a shot by an opponent shall not be counted as one of the three taps permitted by their team. 
• He/she/they may block the shot and play the ball before a teammate touches the ball.
• If the two players block the ball simultaneously, this will count as one hit.

PLAYOFFS

SEEDINGS

• Playoff matches will consist of a best-of-three series.
• The first 2 games will be played to 25 points (capping at 29).
• The 3^rd game, if necessary, will be played to 15 points (capping at 17).
• Playoffs are based on win/loss record on total games not matches.
• The number of teams to qualify for playoffs will vary from season to season based on the number of teams registered.
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TIEBREAKERS

• All teams tied in the standings will use the following tiebreakers, in order, to determine seeding:
  • Most regular season wins
  • Head-to-head
  • Most regular season matches won (best of 3)
  • Coin toss

3-way tiebreakers: When 3 or more teams are tied; all teams will be ranked on the same criteria as opposed to knocking a team out then returning to the top of the tiebreaker list. Tiebreakers will be applied until all teams that are tied can be ranked using the same criteria. If the teams did not play one another in an even number of games then “head-to-head” will be skipped.