The Nation Ford Falcons girls’ volleyball team swept rival Fort Mill in three sets to improve to 6-0 in Region 3-5A on Tuesday.
Nation Ford moved to 25-2 overall with the win and will begin the second round of region play Wednesday against Northwestern.
The Falcons won 25-9, 25-10, 25-14 over Fort Mill, who dropped to 7-6 overall and 3-3 in region play.
Nation Ford head coach Craig Brown said he challenged his team heading into the match.
“We challenged them to come out with some spirit,” he said. “I think we came out and played well.
Nation Ford opened the first set and were dominate quickly going up 7-0 before a Fort Mill timeout.
The Falcons went up 9-0 before the Jackets scored their first point. When they did that, Fort Mill got a small advantage cutting the Nation Ford lead in half at 10-5.
Despite the Jackets cutting into the Falcons lead, Nation Ford never lost momentum and was able to continue to pull away going up 22-8 before closing the first set out.
Fort Mill started the second set better and went up 4-2. Nation Ford was able to stay close and gained the lead at 8-7 and started to again pull away.
The Falcons scored five of the next six points to take a 13-8 lead, before increasing that lead to 22-12 and soon went up 2-0 shortly afterward.
Nation Ford was the one that got the hot start in the third set starting 7-0 before Fort Mill was able to score. The Falcons continued to hold the lead and kept Fort Mill off balance for much of the set going up 19-7.
Nation Ford would finish out the set and take the match to stay undefeated in the region.
Fort Mill head coach Makala McCrorey said she felt like it was a case of the jitters for her team.
“Our nerves got the best of us,” she said.
Fort Mill opens the second round of region play at Catawba Ridge on Thursday, Sept. 26. McCrorey said seeing them a second time, Fort Mill should respond better.
“I think we will feel more comfortable,” she said.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
