It all begins Saturday in a 1 p.m. kickoff vs. 2-time defending champion Livingston in the finals of the 42nd Essex County Tournament before moving on to the state prep A-Division Tournament final on Tuesday to face East Coast power Pennington.
And, if that is not enough, there is the NJSIAA Non-Public, North A state tournament which will kick off with a first-round game on Thursday (Nov. 6) and with the prospect of facing state powers Pingry and Immaculate Heart in the respective sectional semis and final.
All told, that’s three of the four championships which undefeated and fifth-ranked Mount St. Dominic (19-0) will be pursuing over the next couple of weeks, but first and foremost for the Lions is the ECT title tilt vs. second-seeded and 15th-ranked Livingston (14-2-1), which is a very formidable side and a team the Mount went to the limit against during their regular season Super Essex Conference showdown back on Oct. 7 when the Lions earned a 3-2 victory in overtime.
“We have some big challenges coming up in the next several days for sure, but all we’re thinking about right now is going up against Livingston as we seek our first-ever ECT championship,” said Mount veteran head coach Angelo Del Vecchio. “We’ll be facing a talented and very well-coached team which has won the last two county tournament titles and we expect it to be another close and hard-fought game.
“We’re very excited to be in our first final and I remind the girls that we’re not just satisfied getting here and we definitely want to win that first championship.”
The Mount, which has really risen on the scene the last three seasons, including making an ECT semifinal appearance in 2023 when it also went on to win its first-ever Non-Public, North A state sectional title, has perhaps its best squad this fall and one which features three very potent scorers in senior forwards Lena Tusche (24 goals, 17 assists) and Gianna Camporeale (25 goals, 19 assists) and junior midfielder Sophia Giordano (15 goals, 11 assists).
Tusche, a Vanderbilt commit, is one of the state’s top-around players and is complemented very well up top by Camporeale, a Princeton commit, who is also very opportunistic around the opposing goal area.
Giordano is part of a superb midfield that also includes other standouts such as senior Jacqueline Karcic, who scored the winning goal in OT vs. Livingston in their regular season match, and junior Reina Casas.
Sophomore Bella Raju is a very capable goal keeper anchoring the back for the Lions.
The Mount edged Montclair, 2-1, in its semifinal match while playing in the program’s fourth ECT Final 4. The Lions fell to West Orange, 6-3, in the 2023 ECT semis.
Livingston, which has won six in a row, including a hard-fought 3-2 ECT semifinal triumph over Verona this past Monday night, features another one of the state’s top players in senior Rutgers commit Dina Bojkovic, who had a 3-goal hat trick in the semifinal win vs. Verona and has 29 goals and 10 assists on the season.
“She is a handful, no doubt about it,” said Del Vecchio. “I watched the semifinals with Verona and she just took over that match.
“She has dynamic speed and skill and we’ll have to try and find ways to limit her effectiveness because she is an extremely dangerous scorer.”
