Tournament’s Serious Injury Calls Into Question Reffing and Safety Standards For Men’s Club Volleyball

The second half of October exhibited the UNC Men’s Volleyball Club annual home tournament, featuring competition between 17 different teams from around Colorado on Sunday, Oct. 26. 

Games were immediately halted during round one of pool play after a sudden injury occurred. One player severely broke his leg after he and an opposing player simultaneously crossed the line underneath the net during play, preventing a safe landing for the to-be injured player. 

The injured player, a UNC student, was stabilized and rushed to the nearest hospital for emergency surgery where his broken tibia, fibula and fractured ankle were treated with two screws each in the knee and ankle, as well as a rod down the length of the shin of the injured leg. Recovery will take months. 

While crossing the midline of the court during play is against the rules of volleyball, repeated instances of this offense are treated with arguably insufficient severity. This infringement results in the highest probability for injury in the sport of volleyball, yet may not be stigmatized to the proper extent. 

This particular instance was extreme, but the circumstances are not uncommon. Players report several under-the-net violations per game and resulting knee and ankle injuries run rampant among volleyball players. 

This begs the following questions: are instances of under-the-net violations treated with enough rigidity? Are player-referees, which are standard for these kinds of tournaments, trained sufficiently to crack down on dangerous plays? What would an appropriate league-wide response be to incentivise improved safety standards? 

"I would say just be more aware of yourself and where you are on the court because it’s easy to get caught in the moment, and that’s when mistakes are made” said UNC’s injured player, who requested to remain anonymous. 

Time will tell if this incident will serve as a wake up call. While it’s impossible to eliminate all sports injuries, hopefully ones of this caliber will occur less frequently as awareness of the risks grows.