BENDIGO'S CaitlinThwaites and fellow shooter Mwai Kumwenda have played starring roles in the Melbourne Vixens' seven-goal triumph over Super Netball premiership rivals New South Wales Swifts on Tuesday night.
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A 62-55 victory at USC Stadium - in a milestone game for Thwaites - all but secured the Vixens the minor premiership.
The long-time, but retired Diamonds star notched up national league game number 227, tying her with Vixens assistant coach and fellow central Victorian Sharelle McMahon at sixth on the all-time record for national league games played.
It's another outstanding achievement for the 33-year-old, who started her national league career with Melbourne Kestrels in 2002, and has been back with the Vixens for the last two seasons.
Their ninth win from 11 games catapulted the Vixens to 38 points, 10 clear of Swifts and Sunshine Coast Lightning, which fell 72-52 to West Coast Fever in the evening's other match.
It was just the performance coach Simon McKinnis was looking for after the Vixens drew their previous match against the Fever on Saturday.
Importantly in terms of their premiership aspirations, it gave them a clean sweep of wins this season against a potential finals opponent and the defending champions.
"I'm really happy with it. It was a tough, hard match to finish, and I was really happy with the way that we worked through our game right to the end," coach McKinnis said.
"I was pleased because last game against Fever, I thought we didn't contest the ball so we certainly had an objective coming out of that game that we wanted to be ... yes, do the hard work, the dictating, the holding up and the hands over, but be having a crack at the ball, and I thought we did that much better today."
The Vixens got top performances from player of the match Kumwenda and goal attack Thwaites, with both spending a rare, full 60-minutes on court.
"MJ (was) amazing in the circle there," McKinnis said of her star Malawian shooter, "but with Caitlin out the front at goal attack and the work that we did out the front was instrumental in getting the ball to her."
Despite carving a reputation as one of the league's premiers goal shooters across her 18 seasons, McKinnis praised the variation of Thwaites at goal attack this season as vital for her team.
"I think it's important that we have that variation and not be predictable in what we do,' she said.
"I think we've certainly improved in being able to hit any of them in that circle and be putting that ball in, and certainly Caitlin has a great high release to put that ball in to MJ as well."
Kumwenda nailed 48 of 51 attempts at 94.1 per cent, while Thwaites added 11 of 14 at 78.6 per cent.
The win ensured the Sargeant-McKinnis Cup is headed back to Victoria for the first time since 2018.
The cup is named after two greats of New South Wales and Victorian netball - Anne Sargeant and Vixens coach McKinnis.
Next up for the Vixens is a Saturday clash against the Collingwood Magpies at Brisbane's Nissan Arena.
The match will be broadcast live on Channel 9 from 3pm.
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