A HOST of Bendigo Spirit players have been picked to travel with the Jayco Australian Opals as part of their European tour later this month.
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Sara Blicavs, Tessa Lavey, Belinda Snell and Kelly Wilson have been selected in the 12-woman squad.
Former Spirit players Madeleine Garrick and Elyse Penaluna are also gearing up for the tour.
Garrick impressed selectors at the training camp at Terrigal last week and is poised to make her Opals debut in Europe.
The 23-year-old is currently playing with Frankston in the SEABL and recently signed with the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL after playing with the Bendigo Spirit for several years.
Head coach Brendan Joyce said a balanced team was chosen to go to Europe.
“The girls that came into camp displayed a tremendous work ethic and performed really well which always makes it really challenging to select a team to go away,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do is to build on our style of play which was successful at the World Championships; to build on the Opals’ culture that we’ve established in the last two years and continue to improve not only as a team, but also each individual, so that we can challenge for a gold medal at the Olympic Games.”
As part of the European tour the Opals will face full-strength teams from Serbia, Italy and world championship silver medallists Spain as well as visiting squad Venezuela.
