The NCAA women’s volleyball rules committees recommended a player’s foot completely crossing the center line be ruled a fault, beginning with the 2026 season.

Additionally, coaches could challenge whether an opponent’s foot completely crossed the center line. Officials would also be able to look at possible net faults while reviewing a challenge as to whether a player’s foot completely crossed the center line.  

The Division I Women’s Volleyball Playing Rules Subcommittee and the Division II and Division III Women’s Volleyball Rules Committee met in Indianapolis this week to propose rules changes in the sport. 

All rule recommendations must be approved through the governance structure before becoming official. The Division II and Division III Playing Rules Oversight Panel will discuss women’s volleyball rules recommendations Feb. 12. The Division I Women’s Volleyball Oversight Committee will review proposals during a meeting Feb. 16-18. 

Both committees wanted to bring NCAA volleyball more in line with the international center line rule.

Currently, it is not a fault for a player’s foot to completely cross the center line unless the player causes interference or creates a safety hazard. Center line faults currently may not be challenged.

“It’s always about safety when you talk about the center line,” said Keylor Chan, chair of the Division I rules subcommittee and women’s volleyball coach at Samford. “I think, through the course of modern volleyball, this rule has gone back and forth through the years. The hardest part was there was some subjectivity to it. We are trying to take the subjectivity out for the referees and for the safety of our athletes.”

Bench protocols

Both rules groups proposed that teams switch benches after the completion of the second set. Also, the rules committees are recommending that after the coin flip for the fifth set – where a team can choose to serve, receive or which side to compete on – the teams remain on their sides of the net the entire set. 

Rationale for making the change is to aid pace of play and limit the delays of teams changing benches.

Currently, teams switch benches after each set, and the teams also switch benches in the fifth set when the first team reaches 8 points. 

“The time it takes to play a match is something that we are conscious of,” Chan said. “This helps with moving the sport forward in a positive direction.”

DII/III substitutions 

The Division II and Division III Women’s Volleyball Rules Committee proposed increasing the substitutions allowed per set to 18. Currently, teams can make 15 substitutions per set.

“With the rosters increasing over the past few years, we felt like this was a good move to give our student-athletes more opportunities to participate,” said Julia Rowland, chair of the committee and deputy director of athletics and senior woman administrator at Coker. “It gives our coaches more opportunities to get creative with their lineups. The committee felt we should keep these two divisions aligned on the number of substitutions.” 

Experimental rule

Both committees approved an experimental rule for conference games to allow the electronic transmission of live video to the bench area for coaching purposes only. 

Other rules recommendations approved by both committees:

• Players on the serving team would not be allowed to raise their hands above their heads during the serve until the ball crosses the net.
• Challenges would not be permitted once a timeout is initiated.
• When making a video review challenge, coaches would form a “C” with their hands instead of presenting a card to indicate requesting a review. 
• Jewelry could be worn above the chin only. There would not be limitations on the size of the jewelry.
• Misconduct sanctions would remain for the entire match and not reset after a set is completed. Sanctions for procedural reasons (delays) would reset each set.
• Players could go around the net pole to pursue a ball and play it back to their side. This action would be allowed for a ball that has crossed the net plane to the opponent’s free zone over or outside the antenna. There would need to be at least 2 meters of space behind the referee’s pole to use this rule. Television cameras also could not be placed between the attack lines on the side where the referee’s stand is located. Players could not go under the net to pursue the ball.
• Officials could go to the statistics crew or use the Challenge Review System to address a scoring discrepancy. Coaches would not have to make a formal protest in these instances.
• Another optional timeout format would be added in which technical/media timeouts occur when a team reaches 15 points for sets 1-4, regardless of whether a team has already taken a timeout. The technical/media timeout will be a maximum of 90 seconds. A team timeout maximum time would be 75 seconds. There would not be a technical/media timeout in the fifth set.
• If a disqualified player doesn’t sit out the next match as required, the head coach and player would be required to serve a two-game suspension. If a coach who is disqualified doesn’t sit out the next match as required, the head coach would be required to serve a two-game suspension. 
• Two commercial logos would be permitted on the playing surface that would be no larger than 10 feet by 10 feet. One logo could be placed at each end of the playing court located between the attack line and end line. The logos should not interfere with any court marking or boundary lines. 

NEW ORLEANS – Four Privateers were named to the Southland Cross Country All-Academic Team which was released by the conference office on Thursday.
 
Mason Appleton becomes the tenth men’s selection to the Southland All-Academic Team since 2016 and earns his first nod. The senior currently holds a 3.88 GPA as a Biological Sciences major. He competed in all four meets and set three personal bests in the fall.
 
Appleton also went to the NCAA Regionals for the second consecutive season. He also won the Azalea City Classic in the fall.
 
Three women also made the All-Academic Team in Anais Sulpice, Petra Imre and Michela Papalia.
 
Sulpice carries a perfect 4.0 GPA while currently obtaining her Master’s in Finance. A native of France, Sulpice had a top five finish in the Azalea City Classic and finished 21^st in the Southland Championships last fall.
 
Imre currently holds a 3.87 GPA as a Film and Theatre Arts major. The sophomore from Hungary also had a top five finish at the Azalea City Classic and finished 27^th at the Southland Championships.
 
Papalia also finished in the top five at the Azalea City Classic. The sophomore from Italy currently holds a 3.92 GPA as a Human Performance and Health Promotion major. Papalia finished 32^nd at the Southland Championships.
 
The trio of women boost the number of Southland All-Academic selections to 11 since 2019. The Privateers also had four members make the team in 2023, the most since joining the conference.
 
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown volleyball’s Jessie Golden and Ally Panzloff were named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team.

To be considered, a student-athlete must have participated in 90% of the team’s matches played or must start in at least 66% of the contests, have at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale), and reached sophomore athletic eligibility.

Golden earned CSC All-District honors for the third time in her career and Panzloff earned the honor for the first time in her career.

Golden was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year for the third-straight year and First Team All-Ivy for the third-straight year. The senior was also named ECAC Defensive Player of the Year.

Panzloff was named Academic All-Ivy for the Bears this season and finished third on the team in both kills per set (2.46) and total kills (197).

Golden will be considered for CSC Academic All-America honors. The organization will announce the All-American honorees later in January.

 

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LOS ANGELES – USC men’s volleyball head coach Jeff Nygaard has had his contract extended through the 2028 season, USC Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics Jennifer Cohen announced on Thursday, Jan. 8.
 
Nygaard—a three-time Olympian in indoor and beach volleyball and a two-time collegiate MVP while playing on a pair of NCAA championship teams—is in his 11th season (2026) as the head coach of the Trojans and holds a career record of 123-136. He also served the five prior seasons as an assistant coach at USC (2011-15). Nygaard led the Trojans to the MPSF championship match in 2025 and had five players recognized by the AVCA’s All-America committee including first-team choice Dillon Klein.
 
Last year, the Trojans went 21-7, finished second in the MPSF regular season (8-4), and were awarded the second seed into the conference tournament. There, USC finished as runner-up to Pepperdine, which hosted the championship in Malibu, Calif. USC opened the year with a nine-match win streak for its best start to a season since 1991 (28-0) and won 10 matches in a row (Feb. 26-April 3) for the program’s longest win streak since 2012 (18). It was Nygaard’s second 20-win season (20th in program history) and USC led the MPSF for many weeks in all statistical categories but aces. The Trojans finished the season as the NCAA leader in blocks (2.86 bps) with 16 matches in double-digits. USC set a new school record for hitting percentage in a match (.691 vs. Dominican, Feb. 8) and hit better than .300 19 times.
 
Fifth-ranked USC opens 2026 with a home match at Galen Center against St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday (Jan. 10) at 5 p.m. PT. The Trojans will play 16 home contests this spring and play only two regular-season contests outside of Southern California (at BYU, April 10-11). The MPSF tournament will also be held at BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse (April 22-25). The league champion receives the MPSF’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship set to be played May 9-11 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
 
For more information on the USC men’s volleyball team, please visit USCTrojans.com/MVB. Fans of the Trojans can follow @USCmensvolley on Instagram, X, and Facebook.