This topic has a lot of potential. For my daughter, it was really tough. She was well known in her conference and a "star" on her college team. She was on a billboard for her university. There were several articles written about her on campus and then in our local paper. She was highly competitive. Then, it all ended. She jumped into coaching and still played on a women's team for one more year. It was a huge let down to continue playing. She began giving lessons on the side along with her coaching. Due to time constraints, she is now playing slow-pitch co-ed softball and is one of two women in her league who can take it yard on a 300 ft. home run fence.
I want to point out one other drawback to the ending of a career. In college, they do so many things like weight lifting, diet, ... to change a player's body. For my daughter, they wanted power and got it. She hit 50 home runs in her college career. Now, it has been hard for her to make changes away from that lifestyle.