With their title defence looking shaky, the Melbourne Vixens have hit back with a 63-54 victory over the Southern Steel in the trans-Tasman netball championship.
The hosts were coming off three straight losses and had to overcome a dominant performance from the Steel's star goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Reid.
But the clever hands of the Vixen's new wing attack Kelsey Browne made a telling difference in mid-court in the second quarter as she was able to feed the ball quickly into Karyn Bailey and Tegan Philip.
A run of unanswered goals turned a two-goal deficit into a six-goal lead at halftime and the Vixens were able to control the game from there.
Bailey ended the match with 41 goals from 49 attempts and the most valuable player award while her shooting partner Philip scored 22 goals from 25 shots.
For the Steel Fowler-Reid was on fire with 37 goals from 41 attempts and Te Paea Selby-Rickit ended with 17 goals from 21 attempts.
Fowler-Reid's 16th goal gave her the record for the fastest to score 1500 goals in the history of the competition.
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