NOTTOWAY – One day, the Cumberland High School girls soccer team will be judged like most every other team the Dukes face by their win/loss record. Wednesday, nor any other day this inaugural season of girls soccer, was one of those days. The Dukes were shut-out by the Nottoway Cougars 6-0 on Nottoway's Senior Night.

“We're not to that point,” said CHS head coach Colleen Herndon. “But I see continued improvement. We have come a long way. There is still a ways to go, but I can definitely see some growth.”

Cumberland trailed 2-0 at the intermission, before giving up a third goal in the 46th minute, which pretty much ended the Dukes' hopes for an upset.

Playing with only one player on the bench, Cumberland began to tire in the second half. A well-groomed pitch at the Nottoway High School stadium didn't help the slower Dukes, who rely on chasing down long balls to create scoring opportunities.

Balls that would normally hang up a couple yards outside of the penalty box rolled straight to the goalie, who could make the save in time to prevent a one-on-one situation with some of Cumberland's faster players.

“This is the quickest pitch we've played on this season, and we're not used to that. I'm happy that we seemed to recognize this change on defense, and we adjusted to it as well as we could. Offensively, maybe if we could have taken a little bit off those balls, we could've done something with them, but that's a hard adjustment to make. I think they tried, but when the ball started to roll, it looked like it picked up speed.”

Cumberland will wrap up its first varsity girls soccer season next week in the JRD Tournament at Goochland.