Posted: 5/13/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Erica Magda Illinois' Ella Masar, right, dribbles by an Indiana defender at Illinois Track and Soccer Stadium on Oct. 19, 2007. Masar plans to continue her career at the professional level with the Washington Freedom.

"There are over 380,000 NCAA student-athletes, and just about all of them will be going pro in something other than sports."

Commercials sponsored by the NCAA regularly depict athletes playing a sport, whether it's basketball, field hockey or soccer, and the significance of their degree after their collegiate careers.

For Illinois student-athlete graduates, the importance of a degree can offer more than a future after athletics.

It can also serve as a backup if endeavors into the realm of professional sports fall short.

After sharing the same softball diamond for the past four years, shortstop Angelena Mexicano and third baseman Shanna Diller will have the opportunity to do so again in the professional ranks. But this time they will play on opposing teams.

Mexicano was drafted No. 17 overall in the third round by the Akron Racers of the National Pro Fastpitch league.

Her left-side counterpart, Diller, plans to play for the Rockford Thunder, a move that allows her to stay in-state and close to her Bloomington, Ill., home.

"What's nice about it is not having to travel far," Diller said. "I didn't go far to go to school, and I won't have to go far to go to (Rockford), so it'll be nice having my family come visit me a lot, and I'll be close to all my friends and be able to see all the girls that stay here this summer."

Mexicano joked that she is continuing to move farther and farther away from her home in San Jose, Calif., rather than closer.

"I think it's exciting," Mexicano said of the impending move. "I'm just looking forward to it and to the experience. Friends say they are going to come visit me and help me move in and cheer me on. It's just going to be exciting."

While the duo aren't quite sure when they will have to report to their new teams, they expect to have a couple of days off after both graduated with degrees in advertising.

Continued...

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