For the second straight summer, Moose Jaw’s Libby Epcoh is getting the opportunity to wear a Team Canada jersey.

Epoch is over in Europe this week for the start of the 2017 FIBA Under-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Italy on Saturday.

“It’s really exciting,” said Epoch on playing for Team Canada again after winning a silver medal at last year’s FIBA U18 Americas Championship.

Coming off an award-winning rookie season with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, Epoch is looking forward to getting another crack at international basketball with U Sports experience under her belt.

“It’s similar competition, very fast and physical, so having that year under my belt is great experience for me and there’s a lot that I can take and transfer over to the international game,” said Epoch.

“Playing strong and fast are critical on the international stage and being a point guard, I need to make sure that I’m controlling the tempo of the offence and getting the right shots for the right players at the right time.”

Canada travelled to France last week and played three exhibition games over the weekend, losing 71-59 to France on Saturday and 69-56 to Australia on Sunday, before closing out with a 71-53 win over China on Monday.

Epoch said those games were good to shake off the jet-lag and get ready for the tournament.

“We were definitely very exhausted after the travel, but we’re ready to go now,” she said.

Earlier this month, Canada’s under-19 men’s team won gold at their FIBA World Cup, giving Canada its first-ever gold medal at an international FIBA tournament.  Epoch said that they’re hoping to follow in the men’s footsteps and bring home gold as well.

“We were watching the game and felt that we have our turn next too, so we were super inspired,” she said.  “We need to come out confident and ready to play.”

The women’s team came together at the start of July for a training camp and Epoch added that they’re looking forward to getting things underway.

“For 14 days we’ve been playing against each other, so it’s great to finally play with each other and get that team chemistry going,” she said.  “We’re definitely looking to execute our offensives to the best of our ability and get good open shots and control the pace of the game.”

Epoch and Canada will open the FIBA U19 World Cup in Udine, Italy on Saturday against Korea.  They face France on Sunday and then wrap up the round robin against Latvia next Monday.