Vixens still have one game to go

The Melbourne Vixens are hoping to finish the home and away campaign on a high with back to win wins in New Zealand.

While last Monday night’s eight-goal win over the Central Pulse all but cemented a place in this year’s finals series, there is still one more home and away game to go.

Melbourne face the Southern Steel in Invercargill on Saturday and captain Bianca Chatfield needs her team to replicate the good start that her team had against Pulse.

“I’m really happy with our start and our ability to keep challenging the Pulse.” she said.

“Although we let them back in the game, we challenged them every time they got some momentum going and we were able to move our lead up.”

“We’ll need to do exactly the same against the Steel.”

The Steel have an experienced line-up featuring several current and former Silver Ferns players, including shooter Jodi Brown.

Ensuring they have good ball speed and accuracy with their passing will be important when the Vixens hit the court.

“They have several international representatives who will try to outsmart us,” Chatfield said.

“Fast ball movement will be the key to breaking the New Zealand zone and getting the ball through court and into our shooters.”

While the Steel are out of finals contention, they have built a reputation this season as being a team that can compete with the ANZ Championship’s top teams.

It’s this ability that Chatfield has identified as the reason why her team can’t take their Kiwi opposition lightly.

“It’s their last game of the season in front of their home crowd and they have nothing to lose so I think we’ll see them play well beyond what they have done during the season.”

“However, we’ve have had a good week in Wellington, everyone is feeling very positive and determined to get the win.”

One HD will show delayed coverage of Saturday’s game from 10:30pm (AEST).

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