Ella Dent and Mackenzie Roddam were part of the NSW PSSA side that won the gold medal at the Australian Championships in August.

Both girls represented the Illawarra under-14 team this season and are putting the time and effort in to reach their potential.

Dent is in year 6 at St Joseph's Bulli, while Roddam attends St Michael's Nowra.

After playing key roles in the McKillop side that won the state title, Roddam and Dent were selected in the NSW team for the national titles at Townsville. They won all eight of their games, including a 54-27 defeat of South Australia in the semi-final and 57-39 victory over Victoria in the final, Dent scoring 10 points in the championship decider.

Making the unbeaten performance even more special was the fact it was only the second time in the tournament's 26-year history that NSW had claimed the gold medal. Victoria have won the event 18 times.

"They were a really balanced team, a very solid starting five and a strong bench," Dent's father Simon said. "The final was close up until half-time, but the girls put Victoria under pressure and created turnovers through defence, and they also had the height to talk them out of shots."

The win was the first in six attempts for NSW coach Claire Hargreaves, a former Illawarra Kittyhawks player.

Illawarra under-18 representative Sean Cranney was a member of the NSW All-Schools open boys team that took home the silver medal.