Giants Netball have won through to the inaugural Super Netball grand final with a clinical 65-57 victory over Melbourne Vixens at Hisense Arena on Saturday night.
The eight-goal win secures the Giants a grand final berth against Sunshine Coast Lightning at Brisbane Entertainment Centre next Saturday.
It wasn't to be for the Vixens who completed the regular season as minor premiers but lost both of their finals matches.
Kristina Brice began the season on the Giants bench but showed she has the skill and composure of a strike shooter with a match-high 42 goals at 95 per cent accuracy.
Giants captain Jo Harten also created plenty of scoring impact netting 23 goals from 25 goals in an MVP performance.
The Giants led from start to finish and had amassed an eight-goal lead at half time courtesy of a whole-court performance as the Vixens struggled to find their flow through the stifling defence.
The visiting team won all but the last quarter and held as much as a 15-goal lead in the last stanza, sending an ominous message to their grand final opponents who beat the Vixens by just one goal last week.
Melbourne's usually flowing attack struggled to find space under the tight defensive pressure from the Giants, with Mwai Kumwenda's 37 goals at 84 per cent accuracy and Tegan Philips' 20 goals from 26 attempts testament to that. Giants coach Julie Fitzgerald was thrilled with her side's performance and praised her lethal attacking lineup.
"Krissy (Kristina Brice) has done, very, very well, and to be thrown in, the first two full games she has played were finals so she has done very very well for that," Fitzgerald said.
"But I've got to give credit to Jo Harten and Prats (Susan Pettitt) and what they're doing out the front; for Prats to play her first full game in wing attack last week, she's never played there before.
"I thought some of the balls she puts in and the steadiness she gives us down there and the brains she gives us down there; I thought she was exceptional."
Vixens coach Simone McKinnis said her team wasn't able to find their way into the match from the outset.
"I think the Giants well and truly earned their place in the grand final," she said.
"They played very well; I don't think we were in the game from the word go.
"It was quite a shaky start for us in terms of basic skills and errors.
"I think once we had that shaky start and Giants were able to capitalise on every opportunity that they had and keep pushing."
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