WEYMOUTH Beach Volleyball Club finished their season in National League Division One with an entertaining 3-1 home defeat to Essex Blaze.

Blaze still have hopes of promotion and their win means that Weymouth Beach end the season in sixth place in the table.

It also hands the Seasiders a national ranking of 15th and the honour of being the highest-ranked side in South West England – a considerable achievement for a side which only reformed as an indoor side four years ago.

Weymouth went into the match without two key players in Archie Golding, who had injured a hand, and Matt Hunter who had work commitments.

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This gave youngster Ollie Smith an opportunity to come into the starting line-up and he certainly took the chance smoothly fitting into the side as a middle blocker.

The match started with Essex taking an early lead as Weymouth struggled to cope with their powerful serve and attacks.

Essex led for most of the set and won 25-21 but towards the end there were signs that they were beginning to get to grips with the Essex attack and were looking to put together good attacking options of their own.

The second set was much more even with Weymouth’s service receive from Elliott Sawyer and Liam Tewkesbury coping well with Essex’s strong serve.

This meant that Weymouth’s attack, co-ordinated by setter Ryan Stout, was able to get on top and led for most of the set, taking it 25-21.

The third set was disappointing for Weymouth.

After their dominance in the second set, they were not able to replicate this in the third and Mihail Stoev, a player with Champions League experience, was the difference between the two sides as his hitting power for Essex seemed unstoppable.

Essex started the fourth set in the same manner but gradually Weymouth came back again with strong blocking from Sam Groom and Darren Harding making Stoev’s hitting less dominant, while Valdis Baranovs’ hitting for Weymouth was looking a match for Stoev.

Weymouth coach Simon Golding also introduced Stuey Jeanes for his tactical serving and Weymouth looked like they would take the match to a final set when they led 23-20.

However, at this point, Weymouth showed a little inexperience as they made a number of unforced errors and Essex came back to level and then took two dramatic points to take the set and the match 25-23.

Although this was a disappointing end to the season for Weymouth Beach, overall they will be very pleased that they comfortably stabilized their position in Division One and will now be able to start planning for next season.

Meanwhile, thoughts will turn to the summer and beach volleyball which will culminate with the Weymouth Beach Classic from Friday, July 15 to Sunday, July 17.