Hill (22), who started as a physical education teacher at Otago Girls High School this term, has just been named as the New Zealand womens volleyball captain.
A co-captain last year with now-retired Dunedin player Claire McPherson, Hill will be captaining the side on her own when it travels to Vietnam to play in the Vietnam Cup next month.
But a decent part of her wages will be going towards her Asian trip.
She has to find more than $2000 to pay for her 12 day trip to Vietnam.
"That will be where the first few pay cheques go," she said.
She said the standard of the tournament was extremely high, with the New Zealand team finishing seventh out of nine teams last year.
Volleyball was a major sport in Asia, with players having plenty of time to dedicate to the game.
"It is like rugby is here."
Taking up the game when she was in year 9 at Western Heights High School in Rotorua, she continued to play volleyball right through school and then when she started studying for a physical education degree at the University of Otago.
She took a couple of years off to play netball and ended up in the Otago Rebels, playing in the mid court.
But knee troubles led her back to the volleyball court last year, playing for club team Scorpions.
She will play for her club side at the national championships in Auckland at the end of the month.
Her knee problems stemmed from damaged tendons not repairing themselves.
So she had to take a rest from netball, and hoped to get back into the sport when her knees got better.
At 1.79m tall, she was a spiker in the team, and said she really enjoyed both sports.
"They are completely different, really."
Hill said the role of captain on the volleyball court was not as intense as other captaincy roles, but was about morale, and settling any on-court disputes.
