Pool Play

4 team volleyball pool play schedule

The classic tournament pool: four teams, one court, six matches. Each team plays three and works one or two.

Teams
Courts
Team names and work teams
Team names, in seed order

Pool of 4 on 1 court

6 matches in 6 rounds, 9:00 am to about 1:30 pm (4 hr 30 min). Each team plays 3 and works 1 or 2.

  1. 9:00 amMatch 1
    Team 2 v Team 4Work: Team 3
  2. 9:45 amMatch 2
    Team 1 v Team 3Work: Team 4
  3. 10:30 amMatch 3
    Team 2 v Team 3Work: Team 1
  4. 11:15 amMatch 4
    Team 1 v Team 4Work: Team 2
  5. 12:00 pmMatch 5
    Team 3 v Team 4Work: Team 1
  6. 12:45 pmMatch 6
    Team 1 v Team 2Work: Team 3

Scores and standings

Type scores as matches finish. The table re-sorts with the tiebreakers you pick.

USA Volleyball style: match record, head-to-head, set %, point %.

PlaceTeamMatchesSetsSet %PointsPoint %
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4
Enter scores

Names and scores are saved in this browser.

The usual pool of four

Six matches can't be shared out evenly as work duty among four teams, so two teams work twice and two work once. In this order nobody works two matches in a row, nobody plays more than two in a row, and the work team is always a team that just came off the court.

Published sheets use slightly different orders, and any order where every pair meets once is fair. If your event hands out its own sheet, use theirs; this one is for the times you are setting up the pool yourself.

How ties are broken

Events don't all use the same rules, so pick yours above the standings. The USA Volleyball tie-break flow chart for junior qualifiers goes: match record first. Two tied teams are split by their head-to-head match. With three or more, a team that beat all the others goes first and one that lost to all of them goes last; then set percentage (sets won out of sets played), then point percentage. Volleyball World events rank on matches won, then match points, then set ratio (sets won divided by sets lost), then point ratio, then the match between the tied teams. Their match points (3 for a 3-0 or 3-1 win, 2 for 3-2, 1 for a 2-3 loss) are for best of 5. For best of 3 the international option uses FIVB's best-of-3 scale: 2 for a win, 1 for a loss. Once every match is played that can't change the order, so set ratio does the work. Regions set their own order too: Ohio Valley's pool sheets use match record, set percentage, then point differential, and never use head-to-head in a three-way tie. Many rec pools count sets won (a count, not a percentage), which the "Sets won first" option does.

After pool play: crossovers for two pools

With two pools, the usual finish is a crossover: each pool winner plays the other pool's runner-up, and the winners meet in the final. The third-place teams work the crossovers, and the loser of the first crossover works the final.

  1. Crossover 11st Pool A v 2nd Pool Bwork: 3rd Pool A
  2. Crossover 21st Pool B v 2nd Pool Awork: 3rd Pool B
  3. FinalWinner 1 v Winner 2work: loser of crossover 1

Seed the pools in a snake so they are even: pool A gets seeds 1, 4, 5, 8 and pool B gets 2, 3, 6, 7. With 6 to 8 teams, pick 2 pools above to get both pools, the crossovers and the final on one sheet.

Questions organisers ask

How many matches are in a 4 team pool?

Six. Each team plays three matches and works one or two.

Why do some teams work twice in a pool of 4?

There are six matches and four teams, so the work can only be split two, two, one, one. Agree in advance who gets the extra job, or let the order decide.

How long does a 4 team pool take?

About 4 hours 30 minutes at 45 minutes a match, or about 3 hours 30 minutes with two sets to 25 and no third set.