AMELIA – The Cumberland High School volleyball team cemented its spot in seventh place going into next week's James River District Tournament with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-21) loss to Amelia County High School on Monday night.

The Dukes will play a JRD Tournament quarterfinal match at second seeded Bluestone on Tuesday October 30.

“We had a good warm-up, and we knew what we had to do,” said CHS head coach Heather Sutton. “We just didn't do it.

“We were playing on our heels the entire game, and weren't able to do anything to fix it.”

Cumberland did let a somewhat comfortable lead slip away in the first set, but for the most part, everything was played as close as the scores would indicate.

Amelia jumped out to an early lead in the third set, before Cumberland scored five consecutive points to take a 7-5 lead. Ivy Arbaugh served three aces in the run, and Norma Duncan registered a kill.

Amelia answered with a run of its own to take a 13-8 lead, but Cumberland clawed its way back into the match. An ace by Kailyn Gilliam pulled the Dukes to within one at 16-15.

The Dukes hung around, but were not able to grab the lead from the hosts. A kill by Arbaugh and Duncan pulled the Dukes to within two points at 18-16 and 19-17, respectively.

Down 22-19, Cumberland pulled back to within a point at 22-12 on an ace by Duncan, but the Raiders tallied the final three points to take the three set victory.

“They may have been tight,” answered Sutton. “This was a big game. If we win, we're in sixth, and if we lose, we're in seventh. This is a different kind of pressure than what we may have faced throughout the season, but it's the type of pressure we have to learn to handle, because next week, that's all we'll face.”

The winners of Tuesday's quarterfinal matches will move on to play on Thursday, November 1 at the higher seeded team. The highest remaining team will host the championship game on Saturday.

Regular-season champion Goochland has earned the automatic bid into the Region B Tournament. The JRD's second bid will go to the Tournament finalist, should Goochland make the JRD Tournament finals, or the champion should Goochland be eliminated in the first two rounds.