Mary Ellen Offer chose to attend URI in order to be closer to her older sister Brennan.

NARRAGANSETT — Mary Ellen Offer managed plays in high school, made the dean’s list as a college sophomore and planned to study in Italy this summer.

At the University of Rhode Island, she and her close friend, Holly Maganzini, planned to room together for another year.

They came from different places. Offer grew up in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., and Maganzini was from Wakefield, Mass. But they met as freshmen and were known collectively as Holly and Molly, or “the Ollies squared” — Molly being Offer’s childhood nickname.

The two were together in the predawn hours on Sunday when they were struck by a car on Boston Neck Road.

Offer, 19, was later pronounced dead at South County Hospital.

Maganzini, 20, was at Rhode Island Hospital yesterday with what the police said appeared to be “non-life threatening injuries.”

According to the police, the women had left their campus dormitory and gone to a party on Boston Neck Road. Whether they were leaving the party or walking toward it when they were struck at about 1:20 a.m. was not clear yesterday, said Police Chief Joseph T. Little Jr.

What was clear was that the car that hit them, a 2004 Toyota Corolla, was headed south, and it struck the women near 754 Boston Neck Rd., along a straight but poorly lighted section of road opposite Browning Drive, the police said. The accident happened roughly 50 yards from the Overlook Professional Center plaza where the women had parked.

The police identified the driver as Gayle Cherenzia, of 1 Bayview Drive, Westerly, and said she was one of several people who called 911 to report the accident.

No charges had been filed against Cherenzia.

News of Offer’s death sent shockwaves through Narragansett, where just two years ago three URI students died after rowing out in a small metal boat onto Narragansett Bay. In that case, the police ultimately concluded that the students had been drinking.

Little said he was not sure yesterday if alcohol was involved in the latest incident.

The police chief said he hopes to have the investigation finished by the end of the week or early next week. If the findings suggest excessive speed, impact outside of the vehicle travel lane or something that would put the driver at fault, the findings would be sent to the attorney general’s office for review, Little said.

Offer was one of five sisters — Maureen, Meghan, Ryan and Brennan — all of them high school actors or theater managers.

In the summers they went to Disney World, said her oldest sister, Brennan Burke.

“She was the greatest little sister,” said Burke, who lives in Barrington and is working on a master’s degree in business administration at URI. “She was energetic, artistic, loving and social.”

“She loved her family and she took great care of her friends. She got a lot out of 19 years.”

Offer joined the swim team, started an antismoking program and made the honor roll at the Immaculate Heart Academy in Washington, N.J., where she managed musicals such as 42nd Street.

In the summers, she worked as a bank teller.

She came from a close, churchgoing family, and decided to go to URI so she could be closer to Burke and her two children.

She was active in her home parish in New Jersey and, this semester, served as a Eucharistic minister at Christ the King Church in Kingston where she offered Communion, mostly to college students.

“Molly always had a smile on her face and was always upbeat and positive,” said the Rev. John Soares of the URI Catholic Center. “I know we are all deeply saddened by her loss and have offered our support to the URI community.”

“She was one of those students who was connecting academically and socially. She was well-liked,” added Chip Yensan, URI’s director of residential life and assistant vice president for student affairs.

University officials held two emergency dormitory meetings on Sunday, at 1 and 9 p.m., to inform residents of the accident. Some students who had been away for the weekend were learning about the accident yesterday.

Charles Hall, assistant director of in-hall programs, said the university is planning a memorial. There were also discussions yesterday about chartering a bus to take students to the funeral, Soares said.

Services for Offer will be held at the Becker Funeral Home in Westwood, N.J., on Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. and on Friday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.

Her funeral Mass will be Saturday morning at 9:30 at Our Lady Mother of the Church in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

marmenta@projo.com