Lees (19) will join Otago team-mate Phillipa Finch in the Tactix squad for the 2009 ANZ Championship.
The University of Otago medical student moved to Dunedin from Auckland last year and made her debut for Otago in the national championship side which finished third, and earlier this season she helped the Otago team win the inaugural Lois Muir Challenge.
"It's really exciting, but it will be quite difficult to work it in with med school over the summer months," Lees said.
She plans to stay based in Dunedin but has not quite worked out how she will balance both her studies and her netball commitments.
Lees is the latest in a considerable list of players with links to Otago to join the Canterbury Tactix.
From the 2007 Otago Rebels squad, Jodi Brown (nee Te Huna), Demelza Fellowes, Anna Thompson and Finch all signed on with the Tactix for the inaugural ANZ Championship season.
And the Tactix preliminary squad for next year features five players with Otago connections.
Defender Kahurangi Waititi played for the Otago Rebels in 2006 and was named the fran-chise's player of the year.
Thompson is a Cantabrian but also had a season with the Otago Rebels, and Silver Ferns wing attack Maree Bowden has played for Otago.
Lees and Finch complete the five.
The Southern Steel, by stark contrast, has one player from Otago in the squad: Silver Ferns defender Katrina Grant.
