MIVA Tournament

[Midwest12]

Thank you for apologizing.

We seem to be agreeing on this subject.
About the girl line judge, if she is being paid to be a line judge, than she has to be impartial to be professional. She had no buisness celebrating after the match. The MIVA tourney should have enough money to be able to pay for impartial professional line judge that are certified. I cringe when I see line judges who are athletes at that school.

That is one thing I have to praise IPFW coach Ball on doing. He pays for certified line judges. So does Ball State. They get line judges who are high school coaches in the area (former Delta coach).

[Paying the Line Judge]

Don't worry... that Lewis line judge gets paid!

The hard way, if you know what I mean.

[at the game]

I was at the match. The line judge did make some questionable calls, but was overruled four times. I am not sure if she was trying to help "her team" win, because some of her bad calls were against Lewis. I did not see the down ref high five the team inbetween games, I know her personally, as well as the other officials, and they all act very professional on the court. I also talked to her as she was leaving, and if she was crying she was hiding it very well.
Ptak was hitting over the block and out. I was in the bleachers right behind the railing, which is where about Ptak was contacting the ball, and he was missing by 6-12 inches everytime. He is a very good athlete, but like someone said, he just didnt show up.
Like any other athlete I would love to blame the refs when things dont go my way, and sometimes do, but talking trash behind their back is not the way to handle it.

[VBfanatic]

What Lewis University did by putting their women's vball team players to ref the games is a disaster. It was a big shame for the game of volleyball and IT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. period.

[vball710]

quit complaining cause your team lost because lewis is a far superior team. Even if the couple of calls had gone in IPFW's favor, they still weren't enough to even take a game off of Lewis. Grow up and show some class. There is no reason to be complaining about calls. IPFW had no chance the way that they played.

[Unbiased]

Lewis's women's team did not ref the games. Maybe one linesperson was a Lewis player, but that was it.

Instead of whining, try to figure out if you guys will be good enough to beat Clarke without Ptak.

[Midwest12]

Okay guys...I have tried again and again not to make this an issue of "poor IPFW....the lost because of bad refing."
I was not there but I have seen IPFW play many times this year and have seen them not show up to matches and play very poorly therefore I know that it does happen.

My only concern was that the athletic department at Lewis put poor line judges and refs on the court for such important matches!
Gosh does anyone know how to respond without trying to cause a fight. I just wanted information.

[diggger33]

Midwest12 said:

Thank you for apologizing.

We seem to be agreeing on this subject.
About the girl line judge, if she is being paid to be a line judge, than she has to be impartial to be professional. She had no buisness celebrating after the match. The MIVA tourney should have enough money to be able to pay for impartial professional line judge that are certified. I cringe when I see line judges who are athletes at that school.

That is one thing I have to praise IPFW coach Ball on doing. He pays for certified line judges. So does Ball State. They get line judges who are high school coaches in the area (former Delta coach).

Not all of them are high school coaches...

I will say this officiating Men's college VB isn't the easiest thing in the world. Microtouches and line calls can be pretty tough. You have players like Ptak, Meyer, Barretto, Denmark who hit the ball pretty good makes it a little bit more difficult than sitting in the stand with the luxury of time to make your call. For officials those decisions have to be made instantly. Unlike hockey where you can beat a man with your stick...

[thetachivb]

"My only concern was that the athletic department at Lewis put poor line judges and refs on the court for such important matches!
Gosh does anyone know how to respond without trying to cause a fight. I just wanted information."

Speaking as a USAV National Referee who was at the Lewis/IPFW match, I hope I can provide some of the information that you are seeking.

There is no question that the female LJ on the semif-final matches was in over her head. The R1 did a good job of taking control of things and overruling her when he felt he should. As someone else mentioned, the speed of the men's game makes it difficult, to say the least, to overrule anything except blatant mistakes by a LJ. Don't forget that blatant from the perspective of your seat in the stands is different from the perspective of the ladder, especially at the speed of some of those attacks. From my perspective - and won't that start an argument now!!! - I only saw one attack that I thought the block touched that was not called. If any player had only one error we would say they played a godlike match, but if the officials make one error ....

I watched the match from the bench side stands behind Lewis' home bench, so I had the same view as the male LJ. I also had a clear view of the interaction of the R2 with the Lewis player between games 2 and 3. She went over to him and told him, "don't do that again." I would assume that there was a behavior issue she was addressing - doing her job as it were. I saw the incident from the time she walked over from the scoretable to the time she returned to the scoretable. At no time did I see her "high-five" anyone nor act in an unprofessional - or homer - manner. I suppose that someone looking from behind the exchange might think there was something else that happened, but when observed from straight on nothing did. Again, perspective.

I would think that the players would be honored to be in the MIVA semifinal. One might call it on par with the Women's Sweet Sixteen match. Well, it is also an honor for an official to be selected BY THE CONFERENCE to work those matches as well. I don't know of any official who would willingly or knowingly throw away many seasons of hard work by doing something homerish or unprofessional at those matches.

There are certain professions and avocations where integrity and reputation are key: the medical and teaching professions immediately come to mind. In those professions, there are certain accusations that can destroy a career forever. Abuse comes to mind. Even if the person is proven innocent, the stigma of the charge is enough to force the person out of the field. The charge becomes their own modern day scarlet letter. The statements and accusations in this thread parallel that situation for an official. YEARS of hard work could be lost. Think about it before passing on or repeating those accusations.

[Midwest12]

okay thank you.

Do you think that the line judge situation will be changed in the future. Maybe get certified refs to line judge?
I am just curious.

[diggger33]

thetachivb said:

(snip)


I watched the match from the bench side stands behind Lewis' home bench, so I had the same view as the male LJ. I also had a clear view of the interaction of the R2 with the Lewis player between games 2 and 3. She went over to him and told him, "don't do that again." I would assume that there was a behavior issue she was addressing - doing her job as it were. I saw the incident from the time she walked over from the scoretable to the time she returned to the scoretable. At no time did I see her "high-five" anyone nor act in an unprofessional - or homer - manner. (snip)

I think any ref will tell you this but it is not the linesperson responsiblilty to correct player behavior. It is the up or down official who bears that burden. She should have told the down official what was going on and let him deal with it. Can't have too many sheriffs.........