Volleyball · Rules and guides
Volleyball scoring guides
Volleyball is rally scored, indoors and on the sand: every rally is a point for the team that wins it, whoever served. These guides explain how sets and matches are won, why a set can run well past 25, and when beach teams change ends.
For the indoor game, start with how volleyball scoring works. It covers sets and the shorter fifth set, who serves and when a team rotates, US college and high school formats, and what a scorekeeper tracks, with a close set followed rally by rally.
Playing on sand? Beach volleyball scoring covers the best-of-3 format and who serves in a team of two, and the side switch calculator tells you when to change ends.
The rules on these pages are based on the FIVB's 2025-2028 indoor and beach rules, with NCAA and NFHS rules for US college and high school play. The rally-by-rally examples are scored by the same engine as the volleyball score tracker app, which keeps the score with one tap per rally and shows each team's points in the current set, the sets won and every finished set.
Scoring guides
Free tools
Formats and variations
Last reviewed September 25, 2026
Keep score with one tap.
Sport Score Tracker keeps volleyball score on iPhone and Apple Watch, so you can play instead of counting. Offline, no ads, no account.