ASHCOMBE U18 volleyball team have made it through to the final of the National Cup.

They made it through to the last eight of the competition with a winning performance in round two in January and were drawn against American School London, Wessex and Tameside.

A fine 2-0 win over American School London was followed by a 2-1 loss to South West champions Wessex.

Captain Izzy Fumagalli, and England player and Dorking Junior Sports personality of the year, Hannah Carey, rallied their side for the third pool match against a strong, young Tameside B team winning comfortably 2-0.

Sian Warren and Nicole Anderle made powerful and strategic attacks at the net and Megan Warren and Georgia Bird blocked out any dangerous attacks.

This meant that a semi-final place was set up, yet again against Tameside Manchester. Ashcombe started well taking the first set 25-22 with the attack combinations of Izzy Fumagalli, Hannah Carey and Sian Warren being dominant.

Tameside came back strongly to win the second set 25-21, finding the gaps in the Ashcombe defence.

The final set is only played to 15 points so a good start was essential and Ashcombe stormed into an 11-8 lead. Tameside fought back and at 11-11 the game was finely poised. Nicole Anderle and Stacey Fullerton served the final points with confidence and the tall Ashcombe side were too strong at the net and blocked all the Tameside attacks to win 15-12 and take the match 2-1.

The U18 side will now face Wessex, who won through in the second semi-final. The final will take place on Sunday, April 25 at the newly refurbished Crystal Palace.

The U16 team finished in third place after losing to Tameside in the semi-finals.

They started successfully with a 2-0 win over North East champions Middlesborough. The second match was a close fought match with strong serving and defending by both sides but eventually Newcastle (Staffs) won 2-1.

A third pool match against another Midlands side Redhill Stourbridge got the Ashcombe side back to winning ways with Sian Warren setting up the strong net attack by Georgia Bird and Megan Warren.

Emily Begley, Lauren Joyce and Robyn Wisdom all played their part in the success.

This set the team up with a semi-final against the champions from the north, Tameside Manchester and although Ashcombe fought for every point Tameside were too strong in attack and defence and went through to the final.