The Melbourne Vixens have kept their finals hopes alive with an emphatic 69-46 victory over New Zealand's Northern Mystics in the trans-Tasman netball clash at Hisense Arena on Sunday.
The 23-goal win sees the Vixens improve their season record to six wins and four losses and extends their streak against the Mystics (2-8, 1 draw) to five.
The Vixens move back into third on the ladder and lead the West Coast Fever on goal difference with both sides on 12 competition points.
In a must-win game, Vixens goal shooter Karyn Bailey recovered from an unusually wobbly start to top score with a career-best 52 goals from 58 attempts at 90 per cent accuracy.
Bailey received good support from Alice Teague-Neeld who scored 15 from 24 was paired against fierce Kiwi defender Anna Harrison, who was celebrating her 50th game.
New Zealand international Maria Tutaia was a stand out for her side, scoring 19 from 25 while under the tough defence of Jo Weston and Geva Mentor.
Imposing 203cm Mystics shooter Megan Craig was immense under the high ball into goal and finished with 20 goals from 23 attempts, in three quarters.
After a slow start to the first quarter, the Vixens were out of the blocks fastest at every other change, piling on five unanswered goals to set up the 11 goal lead they would take to half time (34-23) and storming to a 16 goal advantage just minutes into the third quarter.
Taking a 53-36 lead to the final break, the Vixens seemed to have the all-important goal differential in mind and combined to increase their lead to 23 goals and 108.5 on goal differential to the Fever's 107.8.
With three regular rounds remaining, the Vixens play the West Coast Fever next week at Hisense Arena to determine third place and a spot in the finals.
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