WEYMOUTH lost in the quarter-finals of the Surrey Cup after they competed against the best 10 teams in the country and came away with the knowledge that they will compete at the highest level for a seventh consecutive season next year.

The squad played at the final tournament of the summer which is also regarded as the elite pre-season warm up for National Super League and Division One clubs and the tournament was played at the National Volleyball Centre in Dorking, Surrey.

Weymouth opened with a match against tournament favourites and NVL giants, London Malory, and the match swung both ways until the latter stages as Weymouth got to 19-19 before dropping away to lose 25-20.

The second match was against Team South Wales and Weymouth took complete charge from the outset.

Ailsa McDonald scored regularly for Weymouth through their outside attack, as the Seasiders ran in a comfortable 25-17 win.

Third up came the Dorset derby with Weymouth up against Poole-based rivals Wessex, who gained an early upper hand which left Weymouth playing catch up.

They never lost contact but could not close the five-point deficit surrendered right at the start of the match with Wessex running out winners 25-19.

The final group match was against Team Southampton, and it was another match that saw absolute domination from Weymouth, closing out 25-16 winners.

With that win they qualified from their group to the tournament quarter-finals.

This threw up a fixture against City of Bristol, who had finished second in the other group, and it proved to be a titanic struggle all the way through with neither side able to establish a lead.

Weymouth’s second McDonald sister, Ilona, played a brilliant defensive Libero game in the back court for Weymouth.

The game had everything with big hitting and a superb backcourt with very long rallies from both sides.

Unfortunately for Weymouth it was Bristol who edged it right near the end 25-22.

Weymouth can take a lot of positives out of the event and their tournament final ranking ensure they will return again next year.