Otago Goldrush and Ajax guard Nicole Ruske has been named in the Junior Tall Ferns squad to play in the team's home series against China.
The 17-year-old is not new to the side but said it was a thrill to be selected again.
The guard was a member of this year's Goldrush team, which just missed out on a national title in Porirua.
Ruske, a year 12 pupil at St Hilda's Collegiate, has made various national age-grade sides over the year and will be keen to keep making an impact as one of the more experienced players in the team.
She is a member of the table-topping Ajax club side which played at the Edgar Centre last night.
Coach Brent Matehaere, who is also from Dunedin, has named a 14-strong squad for a two-game series which will be played in Christchurch in early September.
Matehaere has vowed his team will play an attractive style of basketball.
"We are trying to create a brand of basketball that the girls enjoy and want to perform,'' he said.
"They have to be locked into every possession; that's our focus in order to give ourselves a chance of success on the international stage.''
The games against China are a key component of the team's preparation for the Fiba Oceania Championships in Fiji this December.
The championships will double as the qualifying tournament for the 2017 Fiba Under-19 World Championships.
The squad has a good dose of international experience.
Four of the players, North Harbour's Zara Jillings and the Waikato trio of Charlisse Leger-Walker, Alyssa Hirawani and Kendell Heremaia, were members of the New Zealand team which finished fifth at the Fiba under-18 3x3 World Championships in Kazakhstan in June.
