KEY POINTS:
Young Southern Steel shooter Julianna Naoupu took a giant step from the bench to the court and gunned down Sharelle McMahon's Melbourne Vixens in a transtasman netball match in Invercargill today.
The 18-year-old, replacing the experienced but injured Megan Dehn (ankle), pumped in the winning goal in the last few seconds as Steel upset the Vixens 47-46 to reverse a first-round trend.
The victory by the Steel was in stark contrast to the early transtasman clashes in this ANZ Championships when Australian teams not only proved superior but pulled off late wins against New Zealand teams.
After scoring the first goal of the match, the Steel regained the lead for the first time well into the third quarter when their regular goalshoot Daneka Wipiiti recovered the ball and succeeded with a second attempt to put her team in front 33-32.
The homeside kept their nose in front 36-34 at the end of that third quarter and throughout much of the final quarter until they lost the ball twice and McMahon's shooting helped the Vixens to level up with 10 seconds remaining.
The Steel worked the ball into the circle and Naoupu fought to regain a loose ball and stepped up with the opportunity to give her team victory.
There was no sign of nervousness from her as she calmly slotted the winner and later said: "It was awesome".
"Nervous? Yes, pretty nervous, I'm still shaking," Naoupu said.
A product of Christchurch Girls' High School and who played for the Canterbury Flames last year, Naoupu is a member of the New Zealand under-21 squad.
She said Steel coach Robyn Broughton told her just yesterday that she would be starting."
"Bloody massive step up," she said of her elevation from the bench.
She said she hadn't noticed the time or the scores when she was lining up the winner and looked at Wipiiti in the hope that she would take the shot.
"She wouldn't. She indicated `take it'. I sort of stood there shaking."
Naoupu managed 81 per cent, 26 from 32 shots, and Wipiiti 68 per cent, 21 from 31.
McMahon shot 18 from 22 for 82 per cent and Caitlin Thwaites 28 from 38 for 74 per cent for the Vixens.
The Vixens led 15-13 in the first quarter and maintained their lead, 24-23, at halftime even though the Steel scored 10 goals to their nine in the second quarter.
The third quarter was the Steel's best after Liana Barrett-Chase was replaced by Wendy Telfer who added both height and speed through the court to match Vixens' centre Natasha Chokljat.
"It's no coincidence that we won today, we know we're capable of it even though everybody else had written us off - I think that probably spurred us on," Steel captain Jenny May-Coffin told Sky Sport.
"It was a great performance by Juli. She's quite a gutsy kid and we're glad we were able to give her an opportunity to get out on the court."
May-Coffin said they had prepared all week to beat the Australian tight, man-to-man defence.
The Vixens appeared hesitant at times with some of the umpires' decision but McMahon felt they were beaten by a better team.
"We kept fighting right to the end but the Steel was too good for us today. We made too many mistakes and didn't put enough pressure on defence, a real disappointment for us," she said.
- NZPA
