Valley Stream soccer stars going their separate ways

May 5 was a bittersweet day for four Valley Stream girls’ soccer players, who have been on the field together for more than a dozen years. At Central High School that afternoon, they each signed their letters of intent to play ball in college.

Jacquelyn Mancini, Lisa Friscia, Sami Saad and Stephanie Manta will each go to a different school in the fall. Mancini will attend Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y. while Friscia will go to Dominican College in Orangeburg, N.Y. Manta will attend Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry while Saad will stay local and play for the Molloy College girls’ soccer team.

“We’ll be playing against each other,” Manta said, noting that her team and Friscia’s will face off in the second game of the college soccer season. Manta plans on playing center that day, as she has for the past three years at Central.

Friscia said she was recruited by the coach of the Dominican College team, and had not heard of the school before that. She is looking forward to spending a week in Costa Rica in August for pre-season training and a soccer tournament.

The defender added that the girls on the Dominican team were very welcoming when she went to visit the school.

Mancini, a goalkeeper, said she also got a good vibe from her future teammates at Mount St. Mary. She is looking forward to the new challenge, but admitted it will be tough to leave her longtime friends behind. “It’s sad but exciting at the same time,” she said.

The girls say they have played together for so long, they can anticipate each other’s moves on the field.

Saad, who plays center now, will likely play sweeper for Molloy. She, along with Friscia and Mancini, have been playing together with the Valley Stream Soccer Club since they were 4 years old. Manta joined them two years later. They also starred on the Central High School varsity squad. together.

In addition, they played basketball in a summer league, lacrosse at Memorial Junior High School, and in a softball league against — and defeating — boys’ teams. “Every sport we’ve ever played, we’ve played together,” Mancini said.

For Mancini, her biggest challenge of their playing days was in ninth grade, when she tore her ACL and had to sit out an entire season. “It was tough,” she said, “to go from being so active every day to having to stop everything.”

But Mancini said, the ordeal of physical therapy was worth it because she knew what she was working toward. She wanted to get back on the field with her longtime teammates.

Vito Friscia and Tom Saad have been their coaches with the Valley Stream Soccer Club. Friscia said the four girls have worked hard and that has enabled them to play at a very high skill level. “I’m going to miss seeing them play together,” he said.

His daughter said this isn’t the end. Lisa Friscia said they still plan to meet up and play soccer together during the summers.

“It’s the end of an era,” Tom Saad said, “and the beginning of another one.”