Workington football star Steffi Hardy has won two new accolades in America.

She has been named in the Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference team – and she was also announced as the defensive player of the year.

Steffie and sister Rio are both members of the University of South Alabama soccer team, the Jaguars, who were also voted to defend their title, by other members of the league.

South Alabama received 10 of 11 first-place votes for 120 points. Troy was second with 102 points and conference newcomer Coastal Carolina was third with 86.

Steffi, a two-time First Team All-Sun Belt defender, was the conference’s 2015 defender of the year.

The former Stainburn School pupil has anchored a defence that has shut out 22 opponents in the last two seasons.

She recorded six goals in 2015, the best among all Jaguar defenders and fifth on the team, and recorded a hat-trick in the regular-season finale against Arkansas State.

Steffi played for a whopping 2,093 minutes last year – the most in the side as they tied for first in the league in shutouts (10) and was second in goals allowed (0.96) and goals against average (0.92).

Sister Rio is looking forward to the new season with the Jaguars.

And the attacking player is hopeful of adding to her goal tally for this season.

She said her aims were: “Definitely to score as many goals as possible, but overall I want to make opportunities for everyone else to score.

“We want to get as many goals as we can for the team so that hopefully we can win another championship.

“I’m playing in a different position this year, so hopefully I’ll be able to get more goals from there.”