WEYMOUTH 3

CAMBRIDGE 0

WEYMOUTH Beach Volleyball Club began 2022 with a comprehensive 3-0 National League Division One win over Cambridge 3-0.

The win emphasized just how important their home venue at the Redlands Sports Centre is to the club as the team was roared on by an enthusiastic crowd on the balcony.

With Redlands threatened with closure this summer the club will lose this home venue and with nowhere else to match it in the town the club may have to move their matches out of Weymouth.

With the ‘Save Redlands’ open meeting being held that evening the club were showing just why this is such an important venue for the town.

READ MORE: Plans for Redlands and petition to save indoor facilities

Before Christmas, the team suffered a couple of away defeats to Nottingham and Richmond but at the time the team was hit by players missing because of Covid-19 so with an almost fully-fit team they were determined to bounce back.

They duly got off to a flying start taking a 7-2 lead in the first set and never let this domination slip in all departments.

Weymouth’s service reception was excellent which allowed man-of-the-match Ryan Stout to set up an unstoppable attack, particularly from outside hitters Liam Tewkesbury, Valdis Baranovs and Matt Hunter.

With this domination Weymouth maintained their lead and ran out 25-14 winners in the first set.

The second set continued with the same pattern of Weymouth control and again they ran away to an early 10-4 lead.

Weymouth’s middle hitters Sam Groom, Darren Harding and Ollie Smith also had too much for the Cambridge defence.

Weymouth seemed to slightly ease off towards the end of the set and Cambridge pulled a few points back but were not able to gain a lead and Weymouth finished off the set 25-18.

The third set did not buck the trend and with Weymouth’s defence, led by libero Elliott Sawyer, looking as strong as their attack, the hosts were always in control and won 25-20 to take the match 3-0.

Next weekend, Weymouth have a long away trip to Doncaster and then they are back in action at Redlands on Saturday, February 12th against Bristol.