• Coed sand volleyball games don't have standardized rules.woman catching a volleyball image by Xavier MARCHANT from Fotolia.com
  
  Unlike men's and women's beach volleyball matches, coed games are not formally recognized by USA Volleyball, the governing body of the sport in America, so there is no uniform set of rules. Instead, the rules of coed games are typically dictated by the league or simply agreed upon by the contestants in informal play. While there are some standards, rules can vary quite a bit from one league to the next.
  
  

Universal Basics

• The ball is served from behind the baseline, and players may not step into the court until after the ball has left their hand. The ball must be returned within three hits. No player may hit the ball twice in succession, but players can hit the ball twice during a rally as long as another player hits it once in between.
  
  Players can cross completely under the net to retrieve a ball as long as they do not interfere with the opposing team. The ball must be returned to the player's side of the court before being sent over the net.
  
  Rally scoring is used, meaning that a point is scored on every serve, regardless of which team served. Matches are two of three games, with the first two games played to 25 and a tie-breaker third game played to 15.
  
  Coed net height is the same as men's: 7 feet, 11-5/8 inches. The court size is 52.6 feet long and 26.3 feet wide.
  
  

Two-Player Rules

• In two-player sand games, players must alternate serves, but other than that, they can start at any position on the court. In other words, the same player might always play the right side of the court and his partner always the left. They may cross at will.
  
  There is no 10-foot line in beach games, and in doubles, players may attack the ball from anywhere on the court.
  
  To hit the ball over the net, players must either strike it overhand, as in a spike or off-speed hit, or bump it. Sets or two-hand pushes over the net are not allowed. Blocks count as hits in doubles matches.
  
  

Six-Player Rules

• Six-player sand rules can vary a great deal. Some leagues enforce a rule in which the ball can be hit by two men and be returned over the net, but three hits by men are not allowed. For example, according to the Center for Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation: "When the ball is played more than once by a team, at least one of the three hits must be made by a girl. There is no requirement that a male must touch the ball."
  
  Other leagues do not allow a team to play with more men than women--in other words, if a team has only five players to start a game, it must be three women and two men. Otherwise, one man must sit out or rotate in and the team must start with four players, two of each gender. A variation on this rule is when a league allows "ghost" players to fill in for missing players. This basically allows a team to play but penalizes the team, since when it is a "ghost" player's turn to serve, the point and serve are lost. Meanwhile, others, such as the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, allow men to outnumber women by one, and only requires that teams start with at least four players.
  
  Players must rotate after every change of possession, just as in indoor play. Although there is no 10-foot line in sand, leagues typically have referees make judgment calls about back-row attacks. In other words, there is an imaginary 10-foot line that a back-row player may not cross to spike. Blocks do not count as hits in six-player games.