Melbourne Vixens goal attack Tegan Caldwell shoots perfect game

VIXEN Tegan Caldwell joined an exclusive club with her sharp shooting this week, but her captain wants her to repeat the effort.

Tegan Caldwell

TEGAN Caldwell has joined an exclusive club with her sharp shooting in the trans-Tasman competition, but her captain has challenged her to repeat the effort.

The Melbourne Vixens goal attack became the fifth player in ANZ Championship history to shoot a perfect game with a score above 20 when she nailed 29 goals from 29 attempts in the 24-goal thrashing of Canterbury Tactix on Monday.

Caldwell joined New Zealand stars Irene van Dyk (Magic) and Cathrine Latu (Mystics), Susan Pratley (Swifts) and Donna Wilkins (Steel) in the elite group.

The performance propelled the 23-year-old into the competition's top 10 shooters, and she boasts the fifth-highest accuracy in that bracket.

It continued a strong start to the season for Caldwell, who has stepped confidently into the shoes of champion goaler Sharelle McMahon, impressing Vixens captain Bianca Chatfield.

"She is doing a great job. That's what you ask of a shooter," Chatfield said.

"I guess it's a great feat to get 100 per cent, but we also want to raise the bar this year.

"If Tegan can do it one game, why can't she do it every game? We have kind of put the challenge back out to her now. We'll give her a bit of a wrap-up, but then we all go, 'OK, do it every week'."

Caldwell could not remember shooting at 100 per cent for an entire game since she was a junior.

"I maybe did it one other time, when I was younger playing in Geelong, but definitely not at a level like that," Caldwell said.

"You aim to do it every week, and the defenders each week are different, but I hope to do it again.

"Maybe now that I know that I can, I will keep putting that pressure on myself to nail that shot."

A Vixen since 2010, Caldwell served as understudy to McMahon before being called up to the goal attack post midway through last season, when the former Australian captain suffered a serious achilles injury.

Caldwell said that exposure gave her the platform to lift her game.

"The more experience you get out there on court, the more you get used to it," she said.

Caldwell said she was looking forward to the challenge against one of her toughest opponents - Swifts defender Mo'onia Gerrard - in Sydney tomorrow.

"She is pretty quick and can keep up with me a lot more than some of the other girls, so she is definitely one of the hardest defenders I come up against," she said.