[Back to News]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-February 6, 2002
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Feb. 6 - Demonstrating that member schools decide the major aspects of post-season tournaments sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the MHSAA Representative Council voted last August 2 to conduct a survey of schools to determine if its Girls Volleyball Tournament during the 2002-03 school year would continue to be conducted in a best two-of-three game format or changed to a best three-of-five game format. Schools favor the two-of-three format.

Of the 708 MHSAA member schools which sponsor girls interscholastic volleyball, 656 schools provided useable responses. Second and third requests were made to obtain responses from as many as possible of the MHSAA schools which sponsor girls volleyball. Of the responding 656 schools, 355 (54 percent) indicated they favored two-of-three game matches while 301 schools (46 percent) favored three-of-five game matches.

Here's a breakdown of the voting by school classification:
Favor 2 of 3-------Favor 3 of 5
Class A 90 79
Class B 90 82
Class C 84 84
Class D 91 56

Ballots required the signature of the girls volleyball coach, the athletic director, the principal and, for public schools, also the signature of the superintendent or his/her authorized representative.

The survey also asked that if three-of-five was favored, which of the scoring systems allowed in the national high school volleyball rules was preferred: traditional scoring to 15 points in all five games, or traditional scoring to 15 in the first four games and rally scoring to 15 in the fifth game if a fifth game was necessary. Rally scoring in the fifth game was preferred 216 to 85.

In rally scoring, a point is awarded at the end of every volley, regardless of which team is serving. Some of those schools which voted for the three-of-five game format indicated support for rally scoring in all five games, which is not presently an option in the national high school rules.

Some of the schools' responses revealed they were not opposed to three-of-five game matches for the MHSAA Tournament but they did not favor three-of-five for regular season competition, or vice versa; or favored three-of-five for dual meets but not for large meets, or vice versa; or favored three-of-five for the varsity level but not for subvarsity programs, or vice versa.

"There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the format of volleyball matches in non-school and college programs that is influencing the national high school rules committee," said MHSAA Assistant Director Gina Mazzolini. "It may be prudent to let the other programs experiment and the national committee finish its debate while we continue to do what has worked well for us. When the dust settles, we will revisit this topic. For now, our schools have spoken."

Schools in Michigan may play two-of-three or three-of-five game matches during the regular season, with or without rally scoring to 15 in the fifth game if necessary. "If we were to play three-of-five game matches in the MHSAA Tournament," added Mazzolini, "then District and Regional Tournaments would extend over several weeknights rather than be confined to Saturdays, and we would have to use two venues for the Semifinals, fracturing a tournament that we successfully united more than a decade ago.

"In addition, there is almost no chance we could get three-of-five game matches televised in their totality at the MHSAA Finals, as we are now able with two-of-three game matches."

Michigan girls dominate the National High School Record Book in season and career records, and six Michigan coaches are listed among the 32 most winning in the nation over their careers.

Volleyball is the most popularly played girls high school sport among MHSAA member schools, and Michigan ranks third nationally, behind only the much more populous states of California and Texas, in the number of high school female volleyball players and ahead of five other more populous states than Michigan.

The MHSAA Representative Council is scheduled to review the survey results at its March 22 meeting in East Lansing.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,300 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.

Farm Bureau Insurance is a year-round MHSAA Corporate Partner