"I want to finish higher than my seeding, I want at least three wins and I want to play well enough so the selectors keep me in mind for 2019," Joyce said.
A tenacious retriever who is coached by Phil Drummond, Joyce is predicting a clash of contrasting styles when she meets Aucklander Hayley Hughes in the first round.
"I've never played her before and I haven't seen for her couple of years because she went to America on a scholarship. But I remember her as a really fit player who liked to move her opponents around . . . it should be a good game."
The Hastings Girls High School Year 12 student said before she won her two consecutive national champion of champions B grade titles that she wanted to be a professional player and this is still her most desired profession.
"I played in two recent Professional Squash Association tournaments in Palmerston North and Matamata. While I didn't qualify it showed me how close I am to that level."
A relation of former world No 1 Leilani Joyce, the member of the Squash Eastern team which finished third at the Hamilton-hosted junior nationals - and member of the Hastings club's B grade women's side which won the national teams tournament last year - boasts a training schedule the more famous Joyce would be proud of.
It includes at least one Te Mata Peak run each week and numerous solo and pairs drills sessions on court. These sessions combined with a spell from tournament play last weekend has her in the best possible condition for the nationals.
"I'm feeling really good and confident. I'm refreshed and ready to go," Joyce said.
Oceania age-group champion and Hastings A2 grader Rhiarne Taiapa, who has been selected for the individual section of next month's world championships, is the only other Bay female to make the top 16 for the nationals and is the 15th seed.
The Bay's sole hope in the men's open draw, A1 grader Cameron Jamieson of the Hawke's Bay club, is the 12th seed.
Greymouth's Paul Coll, 25, the top seed in the men's draw and world No 12, will be chasing a third consecutive title. Coll has had a superb 18 months on the pro tour and has seen his ranking increase since his first national title in 2015 when he held a world ranking of 56.
World No 39 Campbell Grayson, an Aucklander now based in New York, is the second seed and he will be aiming for his third title and first since 2012. He won the PSA event in Auckland at the weekend.
Wellington's Evan Williams is the third seed and has performed well in the June PSA Series to date with a second place in the North Shore Open and quarter-final exits in two other events. He is seeded to meet Grayson in the semifinals while Aucklander Lance Beddoes is the fourth seed and potential semifinal opponent for Coll.
It will be a major surprise if the world's 12th-ranked woman, Joelle King of Cambridge, doesn't capture a sixth title. She was unable to compete at last year's nationals because of a clash with the Hong Kong Open.
Seeded behind former world No 4 King, 28, are Aucklander Amanda Landers-Murphy and Canterbury's Megan Craig, who were New Zealand teammates of King's at last year's world championships. Landers-Murphy is in hot form having claimed the North Shore Open and Matamata PSA titles.
Craig has lost to Landers-Murphy in all three PSA events during the past two months.
