Mount St. Dominic girls soccer looks to make school history in ECT Final

Mount St. Dominic girls soccer team has never won an Essex County Tournament championship or even been to the county final.

Well, the Lions have knocked off one goal on their agenda and will be playing Saturday (Nov. 1) in the ECT final at Livingston High School, 1 p.m.
Top-seeded Mount St. Dominic won its first ECT semifinal when they held off fourth-seeded Montclair, 2-1, on Monday (Oct. 27) night at Millburn High School. In addition, the Mount is still undefeated this season with an 18-0 mark.
Lions senior Lena Tusche scored a pair of goals in the first seven minutes of the semifinal to lead Mount St. Dominic to the title game. Sophomore Bella Raju allowed only Montclair's Carla Osborne to score in the second half to pick up the win in goal.
In addition to the program never winning the county title, Mount St. Dominic is looking to make up for last season. In 2024 the Lions were the top seed and were knocked out of the ECT in the quarterfinals by Verona on penalty kicks (2-2).
For Tusche it feels great in the win over Montclair to get to the finals and also avenging the loss in 2024. Tusche had a hat trick in the season opener over Montclair in September, won by the Mount, 4-1, at Montclair.
"We are super excited," said Tusche. "We are trying to make history. We never made it to the finals, and we are trying to win it all."
Another senior, Gianna Camporeale, who leads the Lions in goals with 25 (Tusche is right behind her with 24), said the ECT has been on the team's mind before the first regular season game in September.
"We write our goals at the beginning of the season and that was on the top of the list," said Camporeale about winning the program's first county title. "That is something that we really wanted. I think we are playing very well together right now as a team."
To get to the semifinals, the Lions would not get tripped up this season as they won 2-0 over ninth-seeded West Orange on Oct. 23 in this season's ECT quarterfinals. Camporeale had both goals for Mount St. Dominic while Raju picked up the Lions ninth clean sheet of the season.

Girls Volleyball

The Mount St. Dominic girls volleyball team's (10-12) drive to the Essex County Tournament final came to an end in the quarterfinals.
The fourth-seeded Lions dropped two straight sets to fifth-seeded West Essex on Oct. 24 to West Essex. It was a tough blow as Mount St. Dominic who lost two very close sets, 27-25 and 25-22.
The Lions volleyball team was coming into the match against West Essex with a full head of steam after a convincing two-straight set win over 13th-seeded Glen Ridge, 25-14, 25-23, on Oct. 22.
It was one of junior Alexci Greene's best offensive performances with a dozen kills to lead Mount St. Dominic over the Ridgers. Junior Skylar Dang was a perfect setter against Glen Ridge with 22 assists to captain the Lions to the ECT victory. Another Mount St. Dominic junior, Sarah Critchett, chipped in three kills and a pair of blocks. Lions sophomore Leah Lemanowicz contributed three kills to the cause.

Field Hockey

The Mount St. Dominic field hockey team (5-10) has hit a struggle again offensively in the recent four-match losing streak.
Despite the lack of offense, the Lions defense and goal keeping from senior Finola Giblin have kept Mount St. Dominic in the game illustrated by the 1-0 loss to Newark Academy on Oct. 23 on the road.
But the lack of goals wasn't because the Lions offense wasn't trying.
Mount St. Dominic peppered Newark Academy goal keeper Isabel Jordan with a dozen shots on goal, but the Lions could not put a shot by Jordan.
It was the lone goal from Newark Academy's Eden Avery in the second quarter that was the difference.

Cross Country

The young Mount St. Dominic cross country team showed off some of the future at the Essex County Championships last week at Cedar Grove Park.
While the Lions came in ninth in the team standings, the future was apparent as freshman Leah Maribello led the Mount St. Dominic runners in finishing 35th with a time of a 22:16.97 in the Oct. 24th meet. For Lions senior, Leiloni Reside, it was the last run in the counties and finished 42nd with a time of 22:28.32. Another future piece is sophomore Gia McArdle at 61st with a time of 23:45.30. Two other sophomores, Pepper Stroever and Erin McMonagale, were 65 and 67 with a time of 24:30.24 and 24:45.41 respectively.