WEYMOUTH Volleyball Club got their National League Division One action underway for 2024 with a narrow 3-2 win at Tamworth Spartans.

This was a very tough match for Weymouth with coach Stuart Jeanes having to rearrange the team after two players departed over Christmas.

Harry Jones left to take up a new job in London and Toddy Topolov has moved to Europe aiming to get a professional contract. This has given the opportunity for Jamie Keates to come into the side as setter with captain Ryan Stout moving to outside hitter.

It was always going to take a while for these changes to settle in and it was no big surprise when Weymouth lost the first set 25-21.

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Weymouth seemed to settle down into the new system in the second set, winning 25-22, so it was a little surprising that they really struggled in the third set making far too many unforced errors and lost 25-18.

The fourth set saw Sam Groom come back into the team and his influence helped Weymouth to have more variations in attack and Weymouth took full advantage to win the set 25-21 to level up the match at 2-2.

In the shortened final set it is always crucial to get off to a good start and Weymouth did this in style with powerful hitting from Michael Wahl and Sebastian Smith as the Seasiders never let Tamworth back into the match.

Weymouth eventually ran out 15-9 winners to take the spoils and move into second place in the league, two points behind leaders Essex Blaze.

After the match, coach Stuart Jeanes said: “With such strong players as Harry and Toddy leaving it was always going to be a tough match but I think overall the boys coped well with the changes and hopefully we can make progress from here, although next week will be a major test.”

Weymouth have that tougher test when they play at home to Black Country on Saturday (12.45pm).

The Midlanders currently lie third in the table and beat Weymouth 3-2 just before Christmas.