WEYMOUTH Beach Volleyball Club travelled north for their final matches of the year in National League Division One only to come away with two defeats.

First up, they played league leaders Stockport and then travelled the short distance to play Manchester Marvels.

Weymouth went into the matches without key setter and captain Ryan Stout who was unavailable for the trip and so coach Simon Golding stepped into the role with Lucas Pusvaskis in a supporting capacity.

The match against Stockport was always going to be difficult. They are a club aiming to get to the very top of British volleyball and have a few professional players in their ranks.

READ MORE: Weymouth 3-0 Darkstar Derbyshire - match report

So far this season, they are unbeaten having only dropped two sets and not surprisingly are top of the table and firm favourites for promotion to the Super League.

However, despite all this Weymouth got off to a great start in the first set and the teams matched each other point-for-point with both sides showing the strength of their hitting with Sam Groom and Darren Harding looking in top form for Weymouth.

At 23-23, the set could have gone either way but a couple of strong blocks from Stockport saw them take a 25-23 win.

Stockport showed why they are doing so well this year when they dominated play in the second set and ran out 25-17 winners.

Weymouth, though, showed great character in the third set to fight back and their service receive was looking particularly strong, however Stockport’s outside hitting back got them back into the game.

Again, either side could have won the set at 23-23 before once more Stockport gained the edge to take the set 26-24 and the match 3-0.

Weymouth Beach had to regroup for the second match against Manchester Marvels and the effects of playing two matches in two days, plus travelling, seemed to show.

Manchester were able to win the first set 25-22 and continued to dominate play in the second, winning comfortably 25-15.

It looked like Weymouth could be facing a second 3-0 defeat but they showed great character with excellent setting from Golding and Pusvaskis plus strong service receive and back court recoveries led by Elliott Sawyer.

Weymouth held the advantage throughout the set to win 25-15 and set up a crucial fourth set.

In a thriller, the set was the closest either side had played in this year and neither could get the decisive two-point lead required.

If Weymouth could have taken this they would have had a great chance to win the match but unfortunately Manchester were able to close out the win 31-29 to take the match 3-1.

Weymouth now have a Christmas and New Year break and are back in action on Saturday, January 14 when they play a home match against Black Country at Redlands (1.45pm).