Section 5: Rules of Play
Service
- Underhand serve below the waist; drop-serve permitted (USAP 2021+ rule adopted)
- Service must clear NVZ; lands diagonally in opponent's service court
- One-fault rule (no second-serve)
Two-Bounce Rule
- Returning team must let serve bounce; serving team must let return bounce — then volleys allowed
Non-Volley Zone (Kitchen)
- No volleys while standing in NVZ or with momentum carrying into NVZ
- Foot fault if any part of body touches NVZ during volley
Scoring Format Variants
- Traditional: games to 11, win by 2 (best of 3 or 5)
- Rally scoring (MLP): point on every rally regardless of server; games to 21, win by 2
- Dreambreaker (MLP tiebreaker): singles rotation, first to 21