She is Jewish. At club level, she played for HDM, HGC and Amsterdam in the Dutch Hockey League. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona she was the first woman from Holland to carry the flag at the opening ceremony. Benninga became a hockey coach after her active career, and was in charge as assistant-coach for the United States, head coach of Alecto, Amsterdam and HC Klein Zwitserland. Her older brother Marc also played international field hockey.