Family and friends gathered at St Michael’s Cathedral, Wagga, on Tuesday to say goodbye to the young woman who died in a ute accident at West Wyalong earlier this month.

Mourners overflowed the cathedral and gathered on the lawn outside, where a screen displayed the service. Afterwards, they comforted her parents Daniel and Tracey, sister Zoe, brother Aiden and partner Jesse Meriton.

Colleague Nick Richardson told the congregation Sarah, a second-year apprentice mechanic at Thomas Brothers, was popular with staff and customers and “proved she belonged in a workshop”.

So happy was Sarah in her job that her family “were unable to get her to stop chewing their ears off" about it.

Riverina Lions teammates Melinda Hyland and Julie McLean recalled a young woman with a cheeky laugh who loved her football and who had joined the club at the age of 15, after spending almost a year talking her dad into letting her play.

Ms Hyland and Ms McLean recalled Sarah’s success with the Lions and in being selected for NSW representative teams, but said her proudest moment was wearing the number 17 jersey – “just like her dad”.

They recalled Sarah’s love, loyalty and respect for her family, friends and team.

Older sister Zoe described Sarah as her “first friend, my baby sister, my square bear”.

Ms Lloyd recalled the countless hours she and her sister spent together as children and how they had shared a bedroom, while in more recent years they had enjoyed late-night talks and Snapchat sessions.

“I couldn’t have asked for a more gentle, warm-hearted, loving, kind, unpredictable sister,” Ms Lloyd said.

Family friend Anthony Jackson read a eulogy on behalf of the Lloyd family and recalled Sarah as a vibrant young woman whose “smile could light up a room”.

Sarah was remembered for her passion for sport – her love of AFL and rugby union –  and her plan to save money to buy a new horse not only for barrel racing, but to try polocrosse.

She was a determined and strong woman, whose competitive streak and strong will “made her a Lloyd through and through”, but who had also inherited compassion beyond her years from her mother, the congregation was told.