After suffering medial ligament damage to her knee, the 19-year-old hockey star thought her chances of being selected in the indoor national hockey squad were slim.

But her hard work and determination to return saw her reach one of her biggest hockey highlights to date.

"I had surgery on my knee the year before the tournament where I was selected for the Australian team," Sutherland said.

"I had the surgery in April and then the championships were in January.

"I was on crutches for six weeks and had a lot of complications.

"I had only started running a month before the championships.

"I didn't think that I would make it because of all of the delays I had, so that has probably been my biggest highlight."

Sutherland has been selected to represent Victoria in the national championships for several years after starting to play indoor hockey when she was 13.

Prior to this, the Kiewa local had been playing state outdoor hockey since she was 11, travelling just about every weekend during the season to compete.

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"I haven't missed a year yet," Sutherland said.

Macey is one of three Sutherlands nominated for the 2020 Norkse Skog Young Achiever of the Year Award alongside sisters Riley and Summer.

While the middle sibling admits her hockey story has been slightly different to her sisters' experiences, she said it was great to be nominated alongside them.

She added the acknowledgement came as a surprise.

"They (Riley and Summer) were both away, so I got the email first," she said.

"It'll be interesting to see who wins it."

Sutherland hopes her next big move will be to make the Australian under-21 indoor women's team, just as older sister Riley has done.

While another knee surgery last year impacted her chances of donning green and gold again in 2020, Sutherland admits she'll be training hard to reach her dream.

The Sutherland girls could one day have the opportunity to represent their country in indoor hockey together.

"If we're in the opens we could, but not for a little while," she said.

However, there is still plenty of friendly competition to be found in the Sutherland house.

"It's probably more so between Riley and Summer than me, but I definitely jump in there sometimes," Sutherland said.

Now entering her second year out of secondary school, when she's not playing hockey Sutherland can be found working in childcare.