Steel 52 Vixens 39
A Southern Steel juggernaut railroaded defending champions Melbourne Vixens 52-39 in their transtasman netball league match at Dunedin's Edgar Centre last night.
A complete team effort in the opening 15 minutes saw the Southern Steel lead 17-6 at the first break, and the Vixens never looked like retrieving such an intimidating deficit.
The win eases the Steel into fourth place on the table, with only three round robin games until the playoffs begin on June 27, while Vixens - with five losses from 10 games - slip into fifth.
Last night they welcomed back key midcourter Natasha Chokljat, sidelined with a calf injury for the last five weeks, but their problems in finding their early rhythm persisted as the Steel came out firing.
The southerners' zone sorely tested the Vixens' patience, disrupting the feed into their shooters and forcing the attack wide as Leana de Bruin and Te Huinga Selby-Rickit set up the angles for a series of well-timed intercepts.
Wing attack Liana Barrett-Chase was superb, the midcourt dynamo playing with pace and vision and combining smoothly with fellow Silver Fern Wendy Frew, who battled mightily all night with Chokljat at centre.
In contrast, the Vixens attacking line looked stale and static, and the Steel through-court defence kept huge pressure on their feed into the circle.
Vixens coach Julie Hoornweg was forced into some early changes, and it was her attacking end which bore the brunt of the coach's dissatisfaction.
Goal shoot Caitlin Thwaites was benched, McMahon moved back to goal shoot and youngster Tegan Caldwell took over the goal attack's bib while Wendy Jones came on at wing attack for Chelsey Nash.
It made little difference - as the second quarter progressed, the Steel's composure on attack remained unrattled while their defensive zone adjusted smoothly to the change in the Vixens' shooting circle.
With halftime closing in, Hoornweg again mix-and-matched her team: Kathleen Knott came on at goal shoot while McMahon eased back out to goal attack, where she is always at her most damaging. Demelza McCloud, largely ineffective against the canny Megan Dehn, was also benched, with another youngster in Kara Richards taking over as the Vixens went into the halftime break 14-29 behind.
The Vixens slowly began to regain some timing in working the ball through from the defensive third. With Knott moving well in the circle and providing more positive options for her feeders, the Vixens came close to matching the Steel as the southerners took the third stanza by just 13-12.
Trailing 26-42 at the three-quarter mark, the Vixens were further hit barely 30 seconds into the last quarter when McMahon was forced from the court. A knock to the face left her with blood streaming and a possible broken nose, leading to the return of Caldwell at goal attack.
Julianna Naoupu came on for the closing five minutes, as Wipiiti left the court after one of her best games for the Steel, shooting 87 per cent, while Dehn finished with figures of 23 from 27 for 85 per cent.
Although the Australians took the final quarter 13-10, the Steel showed coolness to control the pace of the game in the closing stages.
- NZPA
