The Fiji Pearls have held off a determined Tonga 58-46 in their opening match at the Netball World Cup Oceania Qualifiers in Auckland.
It's their first win at international level since the 2015 World Cup.
Fiji are back in action tonight against the Cook Islands, who had a bye after beating Papua New Guinea first up.
The Black Pearls coach Dale Wilson said she had kept a close eye on Fiji in recent weeks.
"This tournament was actually worked around the request from Fiji to coincide with their completion of the Commonwealth Games," she said.
"I watched them with interest because my understanding is they had a few injuries over there.
"They've had a young team - probably their performances over there have caused a few stirs, no different to what the Silver Ferns and Netball New Zealand are experiencing at the moment."
Fiji recorded their first win since the 2015 World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The top two teams from the Oceania qualifier will secure their place at next year's World Cup in Liverpool and Dale Wilson acknowledged there was little room for error.
"I suppose if we end up losing a game we kind of rely on somebody else to lose a game. Fiji, who's currently the top-ranked team at the tournament they're going to come up against Samoa, who are the second ranked team, so somebody's going to lose that game," she said.
"It will depend not only on your losses but how close you have a loss - just what we do in terms of our game even if we lose is really important because we need to keep that score as close as possible to the winning team."
Meanwhile, Samoa made it back to back wins after beating Papua New Guinea 52-41 to move to the top of the standings after the first two rounds.
