She thought her eyes deceived her when she was told to check her email inbox. This was no stitch-up from Magbegor, nor was it a mistake from Basketball Australia.

Scherf is an Opal.

Canberra Capitals stars Kelsey Griffin, Marianna Tolo, Leilani Mitchell and Scherf have been rewarded for their stellar WNBL form while Kristy Wallace has been earmarked as a player of the future by Opals coach Sandy Brondello.

The quintet headline Brondello's 22-player squad for a the 2019 FIBA Asia Cup and the launch of qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games and 2022 FIBA World Cup.

While Griffin, Tolo and Mitchell are regulars on the world stage, 22-year-old Scherf never really thought it was much more than a pipe dream at this stage of her career as the Capitals prepare to face the Townsville Fire at Townsville Stadium on Friday night.

"I was so confused and then I checked my emails and saw I got an email from Basketball Australia saying I had made the Opals squad," Scherf said.

"I told Maddy Rocci, I was like ‘oh my god, this is what has just happened’ and she was over the moon for me. It was just all a bit of a whirlwind of excitement and nerves.

"I definitely was not [expecting it]. I knew that I had been working hard throughout the season but I didn’t actually think this would actually happen."

Scherf admits "it’s been a long road, I’m not going to lie" after an off-season heart to heart saw Capitals coach Paul Goriss lay down an ultimatum: sharpen up or risk failing to fulfil your potential.

Sharpen up she did, playing a starring role for the Capitals as Tolo continued her rehabilitation from an ACL tear.

Now she finds herself in an Opals squad and on top of the WNBL ladder with the Capitals, a team Tolo believes still has plenty of room for improvement as they eye home court advantage in the finals - far removed from where they were 12 months ago.

"The way they were putting a team together like that was pretty incredible, from the start of the season when Kelsey, Keely [Froling] and myself were signed, we didn’t know what was going to be in store," Tolo said.

"We had a coaching session by Marty Clarke during the week. Something he said that rang true was ‘whoever can get better towards the end of the season going into the finals is the team that normally wins’.

"That will be our challenge, whether we can get better over these next couple of weeks and into the finals as well. We always have room to improve.

"We challenge ourselves especially on defence. I know that’s one area where we can definitely get better. We’re ranked first on defence at the moment but we all see we can improve in areas like that."

The WNBL season will draw to a close in February before the Opals go into camp on the Gold Coast from April 12-18 and again in Phoenix, Arizona from July 20-31, before Brondello selects her Asia Cup squad in August.

Wallace is likely to set her sights on a much bigger accolade after she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in December just one week after returning from the same injury - the 2020 Olympic Games.

For her Capitals teammates, the pursuit of a WNBL championship will suit just fine.

Opals squad: Rebecca Allen (Basket90 Gydinia, Poland), Abby Bishop (PEAC Pecs, Hungary), Stephanie Blicavs (Adelaide Lightning), Sara Blicavs (Dandenong Rangers), Alexandra Bunton* (Sydney Flames), Elizabeth Cambage (Shanxi Xing Rui Flame, Taiyuan, Shanxi China), Rebecca Cole (Dandenong Rangers), Katie Ebzery (Perth Lynx), Darcee Garbin (Townsville Fire), Cayla George (Melbourne Boomers), Kelsey Griffin (Canberra Capitals), Tessa Lavey (Dandenong Rangers), Tess Madgen (Townsville Fire), Eziyoda Magbegor (Melbourne Boomers), Lauren Mansfield (Perth Lynx), Leilani Mitchell (Canberra Capitals), Lauren Nicholson (Adelaide Lightning) Jenna O'Hea (Melbourne Boomers), Lauren Scherf (Canberra Capitals), Nicole Seekamp (Adelaide Lightning), Alanna Smith (Stanford University), Stephanie Talbot (Melbourne Boomers), Marianna Tolo (Canberra Capitals), Tahlia Tupaea (Sydney Flames), Kristy Wallace* (Canberra Capitals), Sami Whitcomb (Lattes Montpellier, France) Alex Wilson* (Brydens Sydney Uni Flames).

*denotes injured at time of squad announcement.