Eagles conclude season at state tourney
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 months, 3 weeks AGO
Eagles senior Liana Sushik prepares to serve the ball during the first set in the state tournament.
CALEB PEREZ/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Brook Dana, a Soap Lake senior, bites down on her medal she earned for sportsmanship during the team’s matchup against Wakiakum.
Freshman Eagles player Olivia Noble prepares to spike the ball during the first set against Wakiakum at the state tournament.
Sage Hart, one of the Eagles’ senior players, prepares for her next serve during the state tournament.
Soap Lake freshman, Marina Zubritskiy gets ready to slam the ball back over the net during the third set against Wakiakum.
Eagles senior Alyson Zufall prepares to bump up the ball during the first round of the state tournament.
Senior Mylee Dana from Soap Lake gets ready to serve the ball during the second set against Wakiakum in the state tournament.
YAKIMA —The Soap Lake Eagles volleyball season came to a close Wednesday morning after falling 1-3 to Wakiakum in the first round of the state tournament. Following the hard-fought battle, Eagles head coach Niki Noble said how proud she was of the way the team played this season.
“I’m proud of them for holding it together,” said Noble. “I told them I was proud of them because nobody gave up and nobody let us down in that way at all this season.”
The Eagles started the first set slower than they had anticipated, keeping up for the first half of the set but then falling behind and eventually losing 15-25. In the following set, the Eagles flipped the script and took a significant lead early on to win 25-15.
The next two sets would come close for both teams, with the Eagles coming out of the gate in the first set carrying the momentum of the second set, but Wakiakum would mount a comeback to win 22-25. The fourth set would stay close throughout, but eventually Wakiakum’s offensive push would end the game 21-25 and bring an end to the Eagles’ season.
“It really came down to we made more errors than they did,” said Noble.
She said throughout the season, the team’s chemistry was strengthened by the bonds of the eight seniors on the team who have been playing together since they were in sixth grade. The seniors were also very welcoming to the younger players on the team and showed willingness to make those players feel like they belonged.
Throughout the season and into the state tournament, the two freshman Eagles were integral to the success of the team. At the state tournament, they made their presence known on the court and Noble said they were even able to bring one of their eighth-grade players along to help out on the sidelines.
The legacy that the seniors are leaving behind on the team is the mindset of never giving up and working hard year-round to make their goals, she said. This leaves her very confident in how the team will develop in the future.
“These seniors showed up in the off-season every single year, and as long as they work hard in the off-season, things will come together during the season,” said Noble.
BOX SCORE:
SPLK: 15-25-22-21: 1
WKKM: 25-15-22-21: 3
Brook Dana, a Soap Lake senior, bites down on her medal she earned for sportsmanship during the team’s matchup against Wakiakum.
Freshman Eagles player Olivia Noble prepares to spike the ball during the first set against Wakiakum at the state tournament.
Sage Hart, one of the Eagles’ senior players, prepares for her next serve during the state tournament.
Soap Lake freshman, Marina Zubritskiy gets ready to slam the ball back over the net during the third set against Wakiakum.
Eagles senior Alyson Zufall prepares to bump up the ball during the first round of the state tournament.
Senior Mylee Dana from Soap Lake gets ready to serve the ball during the second set against Wakiakum in the state tournament.ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
BBCC eyes budget and spring enrollment
MOSES LAKE — During Big Bend Community College’s April 30 board meeting the college President, Sarah Thompson Tweedy, shared the counts for spring enrollment and Full Time Enrollment numbers for Spring of 2026 along with updates on where the budget sits. “We still have some work to do in terms of systematically going through our expenses and seeing how much of the requests that we have before us, how many of those we can put off,” said Thompson Tweedy. “There’s the opportunity to close that gap by reducing our expenses, but the challenge is, we’ve also had some expenses go up.” As of April 15, 2026 the spring quarter head count was up nearly 18% from 2025, but total FTE’s and state-funded FTEs were down 6.9% and 11.6% respectively, according to the board agenda.
Huskies best Tigers in OT
Othello moves on to second round of districts
OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (11-5) extended their postseason push after earning a close 2-1 victory in overtime against the Ephrata Tigers (7-10) in the first round of the 2A district tournament. The game winning goal came in second overtime when Othello sophomore Samuel Marroquin knocked the ball into the back of the net. “It was a tough game, Ephrata is definitely a tough opponent, but I feel like we had prepared well for the week,” said Marroquin. “We definitely had a good game plan and we just gave everything. We knew if this was our last game we were going to go out with a bang.” The game was a tight battle from the very beginning as the Tigers and Huskies battled under the hot sun. Othello scored in the first half and maintained their lead in throughout, going into halftime 1-0.
BASIN SPORTS SCHEDULE: May 4-11, 2026
COLUMBIA BASIN — The postseason has begun for high school athletes in our area with teams gearing up to compete against the best of the best. Check out where our local teams are heading this week.