With experience taking part in major curling competitions, such as the Junior Nationals and the Canada Winter Games as well as victories in a couple of local bonspiels, Whitehorse's 2008 junior women's team is well on its way to making quite the name for themselves.

The team has only been together for a couple of years, but this season is proving to be their most successful to date, which can be credited to both a dedicated training and playing schedule for all four members.

The group will represent the Yukon, for the second straight year, at the 2008 M&M Meat Shops Canadian National Junior Championship, set for Sault Ste. Marie, ON from Feb. 2-10.

'I think that as far as their improvement goes, it's 100 per cent from last year,' said Lindsay Moldowan, the co-coach, of the team. 'Every year that they go to a competition will be beneficial for them. The more games they get to play here and the more competition that they play at the national level, they will just improve and there is nowhere to go, but up.'

The team is comprised of 14-year-old skip, Sarah Koltun; Chelsea Duncan, 15, who is the third; Linea Eby, 13, who is the second and 14-year-old lead, Tessa Vibe.

Duncan and Koltun were the original members and competed at the previous Arctic Winter Games in 2006, along with two other girls. Vibe and Eby joined not long after, which completed the team for the 2006-07 season.

With the additions of Vibe and Eby it allowed Team Koltun to enter the 2007 Junior Nationals, which coaches Gord Moffatt and Moldowan thought would be a good tune-up to prepare the girls for competition at the Canada Winter Games.

'At the beginning we really thought that Nationals wasn't such a good idea and then closer and closer to that date we thought maybe we should put them in it, so that they would be more ready for Canada Winter Games,' Moldowan said. 'They came back from Nationals a completely different team, it was the best thing we could have ever done for them.'

At the Junior Nationals they became the youngest team to win a match and Koltun set a record for being the youngest female skip to compete at the event. The group was also competitive, despite the fact that Vibe was sick with a fever and unable to play in half of the games in the championship, forcing the team to use a number of different substitutes.

All four members credit their involvement in the the Junior Nationals for helping to turn around their season in the Whitehorse Curling Club's women's league, which the team went undefeated in after they returned.

Team Koltun also achieved their goal of winning two games at the Canada Winter Games and shortly after that won their first bonspiel, capturing the women's B event of the International Bonspiel at the end of March.

This year the team has carried over the success from the second half of last season, which has resulted in them winning the NuWay Crushing Ladies Bonspiel, held over the November long weekend.

They are currently playing in the Tuesday Night Skookum Super League and the Thursday Night Open League. The team practices and plays two times a week. Before each game they have a meeting to go over both individual and team goals and after the game the group meets once again to discuss how it went.

Koltun said playing in both leagues has really helped them improve.

'We just kind of treat it like we are at a competition or try to treat it like that, but then you can learn from the game and learn from the other teams and sometimes learn from our mistakes,' she said.

Moffatt, who will be going to the Junior Nationals as the teams' manger, said their strong play at the end of last year is one of the reasons why they are playing in the Super League this season.

'The last third of the season they performed exceedingly well and that kind of brought them into this year very nicely,' he said. 'They are playing against all of the top competitive men's and women's teams in the Yukon.'

The team also credits their success to the mutual friendship they all have with one another.

'It makes it more fun and we trust each other,' Duncan said. 'So it makes it easier too.'

Moldowan, who will be the head coach at the Junior Nationals, said the team is really dedicated to the sport.

'They all have each given up something big in their lives to do this too that is really important,' she said. 'Last year they were all doing this and something else full-time, so at the end of last year we had to have a meeting and make a decision on if they wanted to go with this and treat it as the number one and they all did, so that is pretty good for kids their age.'

All of them are happy with their decision to make curling the top priority and think it has made a positive difference on the ice.

'Instead of focusing on a bunch of things, you are only focusing on one thing, so you can work harder,' said Vibe.

The team's goals for the upcoming Junior Nationals include winning twice as many matches as they did at last year's event, to be competitive in every game as well as to learn and use the experience to improve for the rest of the season.