A six-week stint in Europe has rising Canberra Capitals star Keely Froling primed to play a key role in the club's WNBL title defence.
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The 23-year-old is set to play bigger minutes during the 2019-20 WNBL season having spent the past season learning from the likes of star duo Kelsey Griffin and Kia Nurse.
Froling has returned to Canberra after rounding out her stay in Europe with a gold medal win for the Emerging Opals at the World Uni Games in Naples, a trip tacked onto the end of FIBA's three-on-three World Cup.
She became a two-time gold medallist as Australia toppled the United States in the final with Froling and Capitals teammate Maddison Rocci playing key roles throughout the tournament.
The Emerging Opals had just two training sessions together before they opened their campaign - but that proved to be more than enough for a team boasting some very familiar faces.
Froling was joined in Naples by her twin sister Alicia, who has been playing in America's NCAA Division 1 for the Southern Methodist University Mustangs.
The pair hadn't seen each other for more than a year but that is set to change as they prepare to rekindle a sibling rivalry after Alicia signed with the Bendigo Spirit.
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"I hadn't seen her for a year and a half so it was really nice to play with her again. She's back playing WNBL now, so I'll be seeing her a few times this year as well," Froling said.
"We hadn't actually played together since I left college three years ago, and we hadn't played in an Australian team together since under 17s so that was awesome experience [at Uni Games].
"Everyone just found their role perfectly [for the Emerging Opals]. Everyone was there with one aim and that was to win gold.
"The coaching staff were really good too, to have Shannon [Seebohm], Mark [Wrobel] and Cherie [Cordoba] come in really helped us, so it was a really successful tournament and a great time."
Froling's gold medal success in Italy is another chapter in a hectic WNBL off-season which took her to the Netherlands for the three-on-three World Cup.
Australia fell agonisingly short of securing a berth for the 2020 Olympic Games after dropping their bronze medal match against France.
A top three finish would have seen the Australian squad earn a spot at the Tokyo Games but all hope is not lost as Froling sets her sights on the next round of qualifiers.
"There's still a way we can get to the Olympics, so that's our next goal, to get to that Olympics qualifying tournament and get through from there," Froling said.
"It did hurt to finish just short and be so close but it was a really great tournament for us and I think it really opened our eyes and showed where we can be at on the world stage."
The time spent playing the much more physical three-on-three format has given Froling confidence she hopes to bring with her to the Capitals as they eye a championship defence.
"It's really rough and you don't get a lot of fouls. You need a lot of one-on-one skills and I think even going from that into University Games I felt so much more confident and I was really happy with how I played," Froling said.
"To then play a fair bit of minutes and to be on in those crunch times was a really good experience for me.
"It's good for me then to go into WNBL and have that confidence under my belt, just to know I can play at that level."
