Tourney Details
The N Ave Beach Ball volleyball tournaments, hosted by the N Ave Beach Club, are well-organized, reasonably priced doubles tourneys for high school girls who are serious about v-ball and know the standard beach volleyball rules and tourney format. We employ professional staff to ensure these tourneys are well organized. And we provide great prizes for the winners; the first place teams in the open divisions will win our monster trophy, the Beach Ball Cup.
We strive to ensure everyone who participates will have fun and come away with a great experience.
Age Divisions:
Our age divisions follow the USAV/AAU classifications. Please note, girls may play up a division.
The Team Fee: $60
Advance Registration Only:
Registration is through our online shopping cart only. Registration opens Monday, 10 a.m. 2 weeks preceding each event & runs through Thursday, 5:00 p.m. the week of the event; or till filled.
The Registration Process:
1. Select the appropriate team age and division in our shopping cart, provide the team name (which is both players last names, ex: Oyos/Yedor), player USAV information, then pay. Creating an account will facilitate future registrations.
2. Once you pay, you'll receive two emails; the 1st is a receipt, the second will be your entry ticket/waiver form (within a day or two). Parents must sign the waiver. The teams must present this entry ticket at the registration desk at check-in, which usually runs between 9:30 through 10 (depending on venue) the day of the tourney.
3. On Thursday or Friday the week of the tourney, we'll send you information concerning our check-in procedures.
Seeding: Pool play seeding is random. Our one exception is we'll do our best to put teams from the same club in different pools. When signing up, be sure to enter the club name on the registration form.
Refunds: Tourney fees are non-refundable. We play rain or shine unless the weather is hazardous (Ex: lightning). Having said that, teams that can't make the tourney, for whatever reason, can transfer their entry ticket, as long as the transfer follows our guidelines, below.
Entry Ticket Transfers: Can't make the event? Tourney entries are transferable. But the replacement team must qualify for the same category and division. For instance, a girl's 14u team could only transfer their spot to another girl's 14u team.
Tourney Check-in: It usually runs between 9:30 - 10 a.m. (Earlier at N Avenue.) We'll email details to participants on Thursday.
Tourney Duration: The tourney starts with a 15 minute rules meeting, then pool play begins. Pool play usually runs for 3 1/2 - 4 hours. For those teams (usually 3/5th's) that don't make the playoffs, the tourney will end. The tourney runs longer for those teams that advance to the playoff round.
Format: In general, the format is round-robin pool play among 5 teams; each match is 1 game to 25 by rally score. The top 2 teams from each pool advance to a single-elimination playoff round. This format may be modified slightly for 4 or 6 team pools.
The Rules: We follow standard USVB Outdoor Beach Volleyball Rules modified by our local rules. Click here for our rules.
Qualifications: Players must know the standard beach volleyball rules and they must supply their own volleyballs. Further, they must obtain a parent or guardian's approval - that's accomplished by having that person sign our waiver/entry ticket.
THE PLAYOFF RULES
Tie-Breakers: Our objective is for the strongest teams to advance out of pool play. We recognize there are various ways to measure this "strength." We're publishing our system so that everyone is aware of the rules that we employ. Please note, we do not play tie-breaker games.
Rules: In general, the team that won in head-to-head competition wins the tie-breaker. If tied, in general, the team with the highest total Point Differential (PD) wins. (Points are indicative of performance.) Below is a detailed explanation of these rules applied to specific situations.
I) Tie Between 2 Teams: If the teams played 1 game against each other, the winner of that game wins the tie-breaker. If they played 2 games against each other, the winner of both games wins. However, if they split their 2 games, the team with the highest total PD for those 2 games wins. If still tied, the team with the highest total PD for all their games wins. If still tied, we'll flip a coin.
II.) Tie Between 3 Teams: The team with the best won/loss record for the games played between those 3 tied teams wins.
A. If still tied, we look to the PD among the games played between the 3 tied teams (our worksheet is provided on the clipboard). The team with the highest total PD wins.
B. If the 3 teams are still tied, we look to the PD of the tied teams against all the teams in their pool. The team with the highest total PD wins. If still tied, we'll flip a coin.
C. Note: If 2 teams advance, seeding is based on their total PD; 1st looking to the PD among the games played between the 3 tied teams. If still tied, then all the matches.
Point Differential Defined: The PD is the point spread in a game. Example: If Team A beats Team B by a score of 25 - 17, Team A's PD for that game is +8; for B it's -8.
Seeding for the Playoff Round: Our objective is for the strongest teams to have the easiest route to the finals. But we do have a bias against seeding teams from the same pool into the same bracket for the 1st round of the playoffs.
If we have 2, 4 or 8 pools, we'll seed as follows:
2 Pools: 1st Ct A v. 2nd Ct B; 1st Ct B v. 2nd Ct A.
4 Pools: 1st Ct A v. 2nd Ct D; 1st Ct B v. 2nd Ct C; 1st Ct C v. 2nd Ct B; 1st Ct D v. 2nd Ct A. (Ct A is the lowest numbered court/division, B is the 2nd lowest, C the 3rd lowest & D is the highest.
8 Pools: It's the same formula as w/4 pools, but w/H as the highest letter.
If we have 3, 5, 6 or 7 pools, in the first round, a few 1st place teams, the top-ranked teams, will receive byes.
Note: We rank teams from top to bottom by first looking at the number of losses, wins don't matter.
Ex 1: an undefeated team will be ranked higher than a team w/1 loss, regardless of whether the team played in a 4 or 5 team pool.
Ex 2: a team w/1 loss will be ranked higher than a team w/2 losses, regardless of whether the team played in a 4 or 5 team pool.
Ex 3: If 2 teams have 1 loss, but one was in a 5 team pool & 1 was in a 4 team pool, it's a tie.
Ties: In breaking ties, the team w/the best average point differential will be ranked higher. (The APD is needed when comparing teams from 5-team pools with those from 4-team pools, as referenced in ex. 3, above.) The 1st round will still be 1st v. 2nd, if possible, with a bias against teams from the same pool playing against each other in this first round.
Prizes: If available, players on the 1st place teams will receive the coveted Beach Ball Cup. (Supply chain issues sometimes delay our trophies.) If unavailable, volleyballs will be awarded in place of trophies.
The 2nd, 3rd & 4th place teams will receive medals.
The top teams in our tourneys will receive points that will go towards their standings in the Great Lakes USAV Beach Point Series program. The top teams/players in this program will receive free entry into the juniors end-of-summer tourney, The Midwest Championships.