Hillyard started playing snooker on a full size table at the YMCA club in Winton, aged 12.

She played her first competitive women's snooker event in 1982, and lost on the final black to the reigning world champion Sue Foster.

[4] Hillyard won the 1984 Amateur World Women's Snooker Championship[5] aged 15,[6] defeating Canadian player Natalie Stelmach 4–1 in the final.

[8] When the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) opened membership for events to anyone over the age of 16 in 1990, Hillyard was one of six women to join, along with Allison Fisher, Ann-Marie Farren, Georgina Aplin, Karen Corr, and Maureen McCarthy, whilst 443 men joined at the same time.

Her last year on the WPBSA circuit was the 1994–95 snooker season, concluding with a 0–5 loss to Andrew Duff in the first qualifying round for the 1995 British Open.