KENNEBUNK — Alie and Abbey Leonardi look identical, as you would expect twin sisters to look.

However, on the field of battle? That’s where the striking resemblance ends.

The two will be heading to different coasts this fall for different sports, but with the same fiercely competitive spirit that marked their four years at Kennebunk High School.

The two signed their NCAA National Letters of Intent Wednesday. Alie committed to Stony Brook University in Long Island, N.Y. to play soccer, and Abbey will wing her way westward to run track and cross country for the University of Oregon.

“I’m excited,” Abbey said. “As a freshman, I always looked (forward) to this moment, I guess. And (have been) working toward this. But then, I still have a whole (spring) track season left for Kennebunk. So I can’t get too excited.”

Alie, who was the 2011 Journal Tribune Girls Soccer Player of the Year, will be joining a program that will seek to rebound from last year’s 4-12-1 mark.

“I could tell from the coaches there that that was going to be the best fit for me,” she said. “It was really nice there, and the kids treated me really well when I visited.”

Alie said she is excited about the task that lays ahead.

“I think I need to take the summer workouts seriously,” she said. “Keep working as hard as I can until then, to make sure that I am fit. Then when I get there, take all the advice they can give me.”

Abbey is a Journal Tribune award winner several times over, and has won numerous Maine Class A state championships in cross country, the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races during all four of her varsity years.

She said she chose Oregon, a perennial NCAA track and field power, after feeling at home there during her visit.

This, even though she would now be living 3,000 miles away from home.

“I think when I got there, I was still really shy,” Abbey said. “But the girls and the coaches were really very welcoming. ”¦ I feel comfortable there.”

She said she hopes to expand her running repertoire to include longer distance races, and said she hopes ultimately to compete in marathons.

Meanwhile, although they said they’re relieved that the sometimes nerve-wracking task of selecting colleges is behind them, the twins’ parents, Jack and Lynda, said that the real adventure is just beginning.

“We’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Jack said. “I don’t think it will sink in until we come home from dropping them off. We’ve thought about it a lot in going through all this. Right now it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be traumatic. But in September, we’ll feel like it is.”

“I think that they’re ready,” Lynda said. “They’ll both be able to do their own thing and have their separate identities. Both places felt right for both of them.”

The twins will join a growing list of Kennebunk graduates who have gone on to compete in Division I athletics.

That includes women’s basketball players Allison Booth at Boston College and Rebecca Donovan at Holy Cross, track and field athlete Jamie Cook at Penn State, and hockey’s Brian Billett, who is a freshman goalie at Boston College.

— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at 282-1535.