[AROUND THE NET] A Long Island youth star headed to college on a soccer scholarship committed suicide, prompting police to investigate dozens of offensive comments posted on social networking sites directed at the girl before and after her death.

Alexis Pilkington starred for West Islip High School in soccer and lacrosse and was headed to Division II Dowling on a soccer scholarship.

"I believe in my heart that cyberbullying wasn't the cause of Lexi's death," her mother, Paula Pilkington told the Daily News. "This is a mistake."

The family, which said Alexis, who played for the West Islip Soccer Cub, had been in counseling, was cooperating with the police probe.

"Teenage suicide, it is one of the most painful things you can go through and there is no one answer,"Alexis' father, Thomas Pilkington, a member of the New York Police Department, told WCBS.