OCVL Rules

Canadian Volleyball Association rules are to be followed for all games in this league.

The OCVL uses Ontario Volleyball Association (OVA) officials for every match.

Teams will play a best of 5 game with a winner every night, except in a possible 3-team tier.

An official game ball is required for all games and to be provided by the team players. The official Volleyball Canada ball is the Mikasa (yellow & blue ball). If both teams agree, any other official game ball is permitted.

Players / Teams:

• All players must be registered online, with waivers completed, before playing a match.
• A player must have 10 regular season matches to be eligible for the playoffs.
• Spares are permitted in the qualifying / ranking tournaments.
• Teams must have 5 registered players on the court at all times. 4 or less players is not permitted and results in a loss by default.
• Unregistered spares are not permitted:
  • A player from another team can be borrowed.
  • A player in the same facility may play both the early and late game.
  • Every player must be added to the online attendance for each team they played with, for contact tracing. Be sure to get the player’s name.

Spares

• Spares must be registered online, including waivers. Blank waiver forms are available at all gyms, to be used pre-match, if not registered online, however spares must also register online following the match.
• Captains must add spare players in the attendance section on the website for tracking.
• Spare players must wear a numbered jersey. We recommend teams have at least one spare jersey.
• Spares are permitted in the qualifying / ranking tournament but not in the playoffs.
• See Fines

Uniforms:

• All players on a team must have matching shirts numbered 1-99. Please note: No 0’s, leading zero’s (007), decimals, symbols or numbers greater than 99. The number must be placed on the jersey at the centre of the front and of the back. The number must be a minimum of 10 cm in height on the chest and a minimum of 15 cm in height on the back. Uniforms from prior years that do not comply with the uniform guidelines will be grandfathered.
• The Libero must wear a shirt which has a different dominant colour and must clearly contrast with the rest of the team. Libero uniforms must be numbered like the rest of the team.
• Uniforms are not required for the qualifying tournaments however each player on a team participating in a qualifying tournament, must have a shirt with a unique number on it.
• All teams must be in uniform the week following Canadian Thanksgiving, Monday, October 10, 2022.
• See Fines

Matches:

• Teams will play a best of 5 sets match to determine a winner, except in a possible 3-team tier. A set (except the deciding set) is won by the team which first scores 25 points with a minimum lead of two points. There is no point limit (26-24; 27-25; …) unless to you hit a time cap.
• A set default occurs when a team does not have enough players “ready to play” at the scheduled start time of the match.
• Subsequent set defaults occur every 10 minutes after that (ie. 7:20 1st set default, 7:30 2nd set default, 7:40 3rd set default).
• See Fines

Time Cap:

Plenty of time has been allocated to each gym, but occasionally time runs out. There are two time caps in force:

1. For the 1st match, the time cap is when the 2nd match begins (ie. 9:10pm match)
2. For the 2nd match, the time cap is when the gym closes (ie. 11pm)

The official will announce the possibility of a time cap at least 5 minutes before the time cap. Time-outs are not permitted once a time cap is indicated. When the time cap is reached, play will continue until the end of the point in play. The team in the lead at the end of that point is declared the winner. Should teams be tied at the end of that point, one more point is played to determine the winner.

4 Set Night Tie-breaker

Where only 4 sets are played, and each team has won 2 sets, the winner is determined by:

1. Greatest difference between points scored and points against for the 4 sets. This will only be done when 4 sets are played, including if the 4th set ended with a time cap.
2. If still tied, the winner is the winner of 2 of the first 3 sets played.

Ladder System

The OCVL operates on what we call a "ladder system". If you win, you move up the ladder, and if you lose, you move down the ladder. Thus, as far as scheduling goes, it means that who, where, and what time your team will play next week, depends on whether you won or lost this week. For more details, go to the Ladder System.

Playoffs:

• All teams play in the playoffs. The league is split into 8-team tiers, starting at the top.
• Playoff seeding is based on average individual team ranking over the last 12 weeks of the season.
• A player must play 10 regular season matches to qualify for playoffs.
• Spares are not permitted to be used in playoffs.

Fines

Fines may be applied by the OCVL executives. Fines will be applied against the team bond.