Bermuda’s under-18 beach volleyball partnership of Sophie Weikl and Olivia Gazzard finished eighth at the World Championships Qualifier in Dominican Republic on Sunday.

Weikl and Gazzard lost the play-off for seventh place to Puerto Rico 13-21, 12-21, but their finishing position was an improvement on tenth last year and they can look back on a string of good performances, including giving the US top seeds a scare in the quarter-final.

Competing in Pool C to start the competition, Bermuda participated in some close-fought games, winning one of their three group matches and losing narrowly to the two seeds in their group.

The Bermuda partnership ended the group on a high by beating Cayman Islands 21-12, 21-7 after defeats to the fourth seed Puerto Ricans (14, 21, 16-21) and third seeds Dominican Republic (15-21, 17-21).

The win ensured that the Bermuda teenagers qualified for the quarter-finals against the United States, who had the highest ranking in the field.

But after losing the opening set 21-8, Weikl and Gazzard gave American top seeds Jamie McCanna and Lauren Leach a huge scare in the second set, losing just 21-18, threatening to take a set off the Americans for the first time in the tournament and scoring more points in a game than any US opponent until the Canadians in the final.

The top five teams at the tournament were guaranteed a spot at the World Championships, with United States, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador and home favourites Dominican Republic securing their spots at the tournament, which is scheduled to take place in Qatar in October.