Manitou Springs swept rival St. Mary’s on Thursday night to move to the cusp of its fourth consecutive 3A Tri-Peaks championship.

Manitou Springs, which won by a score of 26-24, 25-19, 25-23, and is 12-3, 8-0 in 3A Tri-Peaks, has won five straight matches, and has lost only two sets in those victories.

“The last few weeks we’ve been getting it done in three (sets), and tonight I was really wanting the girls to finish it in three,” Manitou Springs coach Jane Squires said. “I’m very happy for the girls and proud of them, because I’ve come in and made some changes and they’ve worked hard and bought in.”

Squires took over as coach just over a month before the season started. Her task was to mold a team that had been to the 3A state semifinals two straight seasons into a squad that could finish the job this November.

There were a few rough patches early in the season, including a 2-0 loss to St. Mary’s on Sept. 12.

“Early in the season we were learning new systems and rotations with a new coach, and it took some time,” Manitou senior Katie McKiel said. “But now we have the mistakes cleaned up and we’re playing very well. St. Mary’s beat us earlier this season, and that wasn’t happening again. To win another league championship would be a great step toward our ultimate goal of a state title.”

With two conference matches left against Fountain Valley and Florence, Manitou Springs is in the driver’s seat.

“We were extremely motivated tonight, and our coaches have been talking for weeks about us needing to be unified and playing together,” McKenzi Petricko said. “That’s something that hasn’t always happened in the past, but it is now. It’s hard to comprehend how dominant we’ve been in the conference, but we want a state title.”

St. Mary’s (9-5, 5-2) will look to improve before the playoffs begin.

“Overall, Manitou played better as a team tonight than they did when we beat them the first time,” St. Mary’s coach Chris Sweeney said. “Our girls played hard, but we need to work on minimizing errors, and blocking was a sore spot for us tonight. But we have plenty of time to work those things out.”