Our Policy
It is SAAVA's policy to provide a safe, inclusive and fair space to play for all players. We believe in a rating system to ensure safe and fair play for everyone, we also believe that any rating system is a fluid and subjective practice but we will strive our best to be open, clear and consistent in communicating how our raters evaluate each player. We do follow NAGVA ratings rules and guidelines and will honor the NAGVA rating of any player that joins the SAAVA organization. For any new members of SAAVA that are unrated with us and/or NAGVA, we encourage the attendance of one of our open gym dates where our raters will be available to assess the individuals skill level and provide them with a SAAVA rating for leagues and tournaments. We love the game of volleyball and therefore endeavor to support any individuals who want to get better at the game so if at any time a player feels their rating level needs to be re-evaluated, we will allow that player to attend one of the previously mentioned open gyms and ask for a re-rate at that time. Click below for rating levels and descriptions.
Tournament Rules
Rules for each tournament will be given out at the captains meetings before the 1st match plays.
League Rules
Each of our Leagues are 6 weeks long. Each team is guaranteed 2 games a night. They will be 2 out of 3 games, first 2 to 21, cap at 23 and the 3rd game to 15, cap at 17. All matches will be timed at 45 minutes. Referees will be provided. We follow the USAV rules for standard play. Click on the link above for the Rule Book.
CO-ED Rules
2 Females must be on the court at all times, but we do differ from other leagues in that we do not require the Female to touch the ball one of the three hits. This allows for quicker play of games, as well as opportunities for male setter to practice their skills and female hitters to practice theirs in a game setting.
Sand Rules
In recreational divisions we will not be enforcing the open hand rule. We will enforce all standard USAV Sand rules for advanced divisions (Click the button above for all current USAV rules) If we advertise co-ed, league or tournament than the above rules apply.
Open Gym Rules
Open gyms will be held on a periodically for members to be rated. All open gyms are played on a co-ed net and the co-ed rules above apply. There will be a sign up sheet at each open gym where you put your name under your preferred position. The teams will be set as evenly as possible and we will make adjustments as each game is completed.
Sand Bagging Rules
If a player is caught intentionally holding back their skills during rating sessions to be rated at a lower level, that player will immediately be removed from play and the team will have one week to replace that person on their roster with a player of the appropriate skill level for the division of play without having to pay any additional fees. The player removed will have an opportunity to be picked up on a team from any of the higher divisions with out having to pay any additional fees. If that player is not picked up, there will be no refunds of the fees paid for the sandbagging individual.