Guerra to play for Puerto Rico national team

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois soccer coach Janet Rayfield on Wednesday announced the signing of six players, five of whom played their prep soccer in the state.
The class is headed by Waubonsie Valley midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo, ranked 51st among the nation’s seniors by Top Drawer Soccer, and Belleville Althoff forward Megan Pawloski. Both players were ESPN Rise third-team All-Americans in 2009.

PHILADELPHIA — Former Illinois midfielder Jackie Santacaterina, a Geneva native, was drafted by the Chicago Red Stars on Friday in the Women’s Professional Soccer draft.
Santacaterina was selected in the seventh round, 60th overall. She will join former Illini teammate Ella Masar, an Urbana product, on the Red Stars’ roster when preseason camp opens March 1. The WPS will begin its second season in April.

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Former Illini soccer star Ella Masar is joining the U.S. Women's National Team for a training camp in December.

Illinois freshman soccer player Shayla Mutz was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman team Wednesday.
Mutz played in all 19 matches for the Illini, starting seven times. She finished fifth on the team with six points (two goals, two assists) and is the first Illini to be named to the All-Freshman team since 2007, when Laura Knutson, Danielle Kot and Cory Steigerwald were honored.

Urbana native and former Illini soccer All-American Ella Masar made her playing debut with the U.S. Women's Senior National Team late last month in Augsburg, Germany. News-Gazette staff writer Jeff Huth reached the 23-year-old forward, a member of the Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer league, via e-mail for this Q&A:

Q: What was it like to get into a game for the first time with the Senior National Team?

Staff writer Jeff Huth's weekly review and preview of all things Illini:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Angela Bizzarri finished a career-high second at the Big Ten cross-country meet Sunday, leading a pack of four All-Big Ten runners and helping the Illini women to a runner-up finish.

Bizzarri, who became Illinois' first four-time All-Big Ten first-teamer, ran the 6-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 10 seconds.