Nation Ford’s Tori Baldino returns a ball during her No. 1 singles match at Fort Mill.

The Nation Ford Falcons girl’s tennis team inched closer to winning a Region 3-5A title by beating Fort Mill Thursday night.

Nation Ford won 4-2 over the Jackets and improved to 8-1 in region play with one more match to go. They will next play Clover on Monday and a win should give them a region title depending on how Blythewood does as well.

On Thursday, Nation Ford got wins from their No. 3 through No. 5 singles players and then won in No. 2 doubles.

Fort Mill took wins at No. 1 singles as Emily Rimmer won 6-2, 6-4 and at No. 2 singles with Adrianna Staniszewski winning 6-4, 6-2.

For the Falcons, it was Ava Baldino winning at No. 3 singles 7-5, 6-2 and Isabella Neff winning 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4 singles. Eva Arnautovic won at No. 5 singles in the only three set match 6-3, 5-7, 11-9.

At No. 2 doubles, Alexa Brenner and Ansley McDonald won 6-4, 6-1 for Nation Ford.

The loss puts Fort Mill at 3-7 to finish the region and 6-7 overall on the season. They have one more match scheduled next week as they travel to Catawba Ridge.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep