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STUDIO CITY — The mood felt a bit somber near JSerra’s bench following the championship of the Elite 8 boys water polo tournament Saturday. Understandably, smiles from players were hard to find.
The Lions’ progress in the water, however, was easy to spot throughout the challenging three-day event.
Fourth-seeded JSerra reached its first regular-season tournament final since 2024 before falling to No. 3 Cathedral Catholic 12-9 at Harvard-Westlake High.
“As disappointing as this is, it’s a step forward,” JSerra coach Brett Ormsby said after the match. “I told (our) guys, they’ve been 5-8th (place) in all three tournaments last year. And then we were 5-8th at the South Coast (Tournament last month).”
“We’ve got to keep pushing,” the Olympian added.
JSerra (12-2) showed its drive against Cathedral Catholic (12-1) by scoring three consecutive goals in the final two minutes of the fourth period to trim the Dons’ advantage to 11-9.
Junior Christian Yonker scored on the extra man with two minutes left. Junior Dylan Park followed less than 30 seconds later with a counterattack strike off his own steal.
And after JSerra defended against a 7-on-6 chance, junior Lars Knepper scored to cut Cathedral Catholic’s lead to 11-9 with 56 seconds remaining.
The Lions’ press defense was a key part of a tournament run that included a 10-9 win against top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Newport Harbor in the semifinals Friday.
JSerra opened a 5-0 lead against Newport Harbor (11-3) but the two-time defending CIF-SS Open Division champion surged in the second half.
Knepper scored the winning goal and the Lions sealed the win by defending a 7-on-6 attack.
“We did a really good job of (pressing) yesterday,” Ormsby said. “Part of the game plan was to repeat it today, and we just didn’t go a very good job.”
Cathedral Catholic was certainly part of the reason.
The Dons found center Grayson Taylor enough that the junior could show his strength finishing and drawing exclusions.
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He netted a match-high four goals, including a strike from 2 meters that gave the Dons an 11-6 cushion with 2:50 remaining in regulation.
“When you have a young man who is that big and that powerful, and has the hands, we got to do a good job of finding him,” Cathedral Catholic coach Tommy Corcoran said of Taylor, who drew two exclusions and a penalty. “Second half, we found him a little bit more.”
Cathedral Catholic also defended well in becoming the first San Diego school to claim the prestigious tournament, which began in 2016.
Goalie Luke Anderson had 10 saves and the Dons held JSerra to a 4 for 12 effort with the extra attacker. Cathedral Catholic went 4 for 9 on the man advantage.
Max Bruhn added two goals on penalty shots.
Cathedral Catholic is playing this fall without Taylor’s brother Jett, a UCLA committed senior and national team player who is competing for a team in Europe.
“A team full of warriors,” Corcoran said of his squad, which placed third at the South Coast Tournament. “They step up. Testament to the boys. Jett has lofty goals in the near-term that he’s trying to make happen. Totally support him.”
JSerra never led but tied the score twice in the first half.
The Lions had a chance to knot the score 5-5 at halftime but missed a shot in the final seconds on a 7-on-6 attempt. Cathedral Catholic’s Eamon Bruhn received the throw-in and alertly fired a full-court shot for a goal to beat the buzzer.
The Dons led 6-4 at intermission.
👀Half: Cathedral strikes from downtown for 6-4 lead v JSerra, huge swing pic.twitter.com/5JIw7kEFGj
— Dan Albano (@ocvarsityguy) October 3, 2026
Cathedral Catholic road the momentum into the third period but JSerra drew within 7-6 on a counterattack strike by junior Cal Ulicny.
Cathedral Catholic responded with a 4-0 run to seize control.
Knepper and Ulicny each scored twice to lead the JSerra offense. Stefan Vukojevic and Gianni Alessio split time in goal for the Lions. Ronan Keane added four steals for the Lions’ defense.
In the third-place match, Miramonte defeated Newport Harbor 16-11. The Sailors edged Miramonte 11-10 in sudden-death overtime in the finals of the South Coast Tournament.
The third and final major tournament of the regular season is the North-South Challenge on Oct. 15-16 in Northern California.
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