Mount St. Dominic Softball, Soccer Lead The 2025 Highlights

The Mount St. Dominic athletic teams had plenty of successes in 2025 with two of the team's leading the way.

Both the Lions softball and soccer teams came home with hardware during the '25 seasons including Essex County and state championships.

The Mount St. Dominic softball team collected another Essex County Tournament title and returned to the top of the Non-Public A while the Lions soccer team finally crashed the party at the top of the county in the sport.

The Mount St. Dominic softball team grabbed the Non-Public A state championship in 2025, the first group state title since the 2014 Lions squad brought home a Non-Public A championship.

And it was the 2025 Lions who came from behind to defeat Donovan Catholic, 4-3, at Ivy Hill Park in Newark in June. The win ended an 11-year drought where Mount St. Dominic had lost five straight Non-Public A state title matches. The Lions softball team finished with a 27-4 mark.

"I couldn't have been happier for the current team, the school and the alumni and it couldn't happen to a finer group of kids," said Stern after the state group championship. "It was a good blend of younger kids and older kids that have been in these big games."

Mount St. Dominic Jillian Cianfrocca, a junior at the time, became the hero of the 2025 team when she hit the second pitch in the top seventh inning for a solo home run over the centerfield fence to give the Lions the 4-3 lead and the win.

"The pitch I saw coming in during my at bat was one right over the plate, so I took advantage of it and attacked it," said Cianfrocca. "Since I leadoff that inning, I didn't want to miss any opportunity, so I was ready for anything close to the plate."

And it was Mount St. Dominic pitcher Ava Kelshaw, a sophomore at the time, to put down the Griffins in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the group championship. The win over Donovan Catholic, came after the Lions program won its 12th Essex County Tournament championship in May.

And it was on the same field that they would win the Non-Public A state championship.

The Lions avenged a pair of losses earlier in the season to Cedar Grove by defeating the Panthers, 6-2, to capture the 2025 Essex County Tournament title on May 17.

Mount St. Dominic was propelled by a four-run fifth inning that was a considered an upset as the third seeded Lions dethroned top-seeded Panthers in the county championship. Mount St. Dominic Avery D'Ambola, who was a freshman, went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI and one run scored to lead the Lions offense. She also the eventual game-winning hit in the fifth inning.

In addition to D'Ambola, Cassie Lopez and Cianfrocca, both juniors last season, chipped in a pair of hits each in the final.

And then only five months later, the Mount St. Dominic soccer team would give something that the Lions Class of 2026 would remember as the Mount St. Dominic soccer squad would capture the school's first Essex County Tournament title in the sport.

After being down 1-0 at halftime, Mount St. Dominic scored four unanswered goals all in the second half as the top-seeded Lions defeated second-seeded Livingston, 4-1, on Saturday (Nov. 1) in the ECT final at Livingston High School.

Mount St. Dominic seniors, Lena Tusche and Gianna Camporeale scored two goals each in the second half. Tusche added a pair of assists in the county title match. Sophomore goalkeeper Bella Raju picked up the victory with three saves.

"We've been striving for this," said Mount St. Dominic girls soccer head coach Angelo Del Vecchio. "This is ninth year as head coach and five years before that. We been building for years. Every Mount soccer player is a brick in the wall that we have been building for years, past coaches and present coaches. This is just not these girls. It is a fantastic feeling."

For Camporeale she was confident that have her friend and teammate, Tusche, scored the Lions first goal to tie the game at one that Mount St. Dominic would secure the program's first county championship.

"After the first goal we knew that it was ours," said Camporeale who added about the final 40 minutes where Mount St. Dominic scored all their goals. "I just think we have been in that place before by being down 1-0. And just came out 10 times stronger. We are just a great second half team."

For the Lions soccer team, it was supposed to be last season where Mount St. Dominic was to win the program's first county championship. But Glen Ridge squashed those dreams in 2024. the Lions, who were also the number one seed in 2024, were upset by the Ridgers in the Essex County Tournament quarterfinals.