After a narrow loss in the first game of the championship final on Monday, the Vanier Spirits came back with a stellar effort on Tuesday to capture the Moose Jaw high school curling girls city championship.

Vanier topped Central 10-7 to secure the city title on Tuesday at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.

“It feels great, it was a hard fought battle and it feels good to be done,” said Vanier skip Samantha McLaren.

This is the second straight city championship for McLaren, third Jane Morris and second Sydney Wells, while this is the first for leads Ashlyn Ferguson and Jaleigh Panko. 

McLaren said the group works well together, “We’re all really close friends, so we get along and it’s easy to move past a missed shot,” she said. “It will definitely help us heading to regionals and provincials.”

The Spirits entered the playoffs as the top seed, but the Cyclones picked up an upset 7-6 win in an extra end on Monday in the opening game of the final.

Vanier struggled with some shots during Monday’s game, but they were on point for much of the second game and it showed as they built up a 6-1 lead after three and 9-1 lead after four.

“For the most part, keeping it open and having no guards (was the biggest change) because the guards really kill us,” said McLaren.

Central battled back with three in the fifth and three more in the seventh, but Vanier ran the Cyclones out of rocks in the eighth end to secure the victory.

The teams will now be travelling to Central Butte this weekend for the district championships.  Moose Jaw hosts the boys and girls regional championships on Mar. 2-3, while the mixed regionals will be in Assiniboia.