WEYMOUTH 1

BLACK COUNTRY 3

WEYMOUTH Volleyball Club suffered their first home league defeat of the season when they lost 3-1 to National League Division One promotional rivals Black Country.

Weymouth went into the match still adapting to the departure of two major players, Harry Jones and Toddy Topolov, but this did give an opportunity to 18-year-old Tom Lycett.

And it was the teenager who got the match off to a great start with a powerful display of outside hitting, allowing Weymouth to lead 8-1 in the first set.

Weymouth continued to hold this lead throughout the set and despite Black Country clawing a few points back Weymouth hung on to the lead to take the set 25-18.

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However, in the second set Black Country really settled into a rhythm and their strong defence proved difficult for Weymouth to get past while their attack led by England international James Ledbury was proving difficult to stop as Black Country took the set 25-18.

Weymouth coach Stuey Jeanes made some changes in the line-up for the third set with Jamie Keates and Ian Bibby coming into the side but Weymouth still struggled to contain the Black Country attack and again lost 25-18.

The fourth set was looking as though it might go the same way with Black Country leading 17-13 but at this point Weymouth finally found some consistency in defence and slowly pulled the Black Country lead back until the scores were level at 23-23.

This was a pivotal point in the game as Weymouth were two points away from 2-2 in set but instead Black Country pulled off two powerful attacks to take the set 25-23 and the match 3-1.

Jeanes said: “This is a disappointing result as I know we can play much better than that but at the moment we just need to work hard at playing as a team and everybody understanding their roles on the court.

“On the positive side it was great to see man-of-the-match Tom Lycett have such a good game.”

Next up for Weymouth is another tough match in London next Sunday when they take on fourth-placed London Giants before returning home on Saturday, February 3 when they play league leaders Essex Blaze.