SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Eagles will be sending senior Xavier Ewing to the state tournament this weekend. Ewing earned first in district singles, and through the efforts of each player, the Eagles boys team claimed the District 5 title for the first time in program history. 

“I’m happy it happened; it couldn’t have happened with a better group of kids,” said Eagles Head Coach Lee Leavell. “Kind of shocked it happened, I just didn’t think that was even a possibility, honestly. Kind of funny how it all turned out, but happy it happened.” 

Ewing entered the district tournament with a first-round bye and began his first match against Gabreil Tamez from La Salle. Ewing gained a swift 6-0 victory in the first set and went on to win the second set 6-3. 

The district finals put Ewing against a familiar opponent in Ben Rasmusson from Manson where the two battled it out for first place. By the end of the match, Ewing claimed the district singles title with a 6-1, 6-4 victory. 

Along with the District 5 singles title, Ewing also won the title of 1B League Player of the Year. 

Francisco Ortega from Soap Lake started off districts against Antonio Salsetto from Highland where he gained a dominant 6-0, 6-1 victory to head into the next round. Ortega battled a tough Aidan Gaines from Okanogan with the final score coming down to 2-6, 4-6 in favor of Gaines.  

The Eagles had a last-minute addition to their district roster as one of the other doubles teams dropped out of the competition, which allowed Jocsan Sanchez-Cruz and Jon Knapp to qualify for the first round of districts in Ephrata. 

Sanchez-Cruz and Knapp started the tournament against Cle Elum-Roslyn's Elijah Bailey and Trevor Sherwood where they gained a 6-2, 6-1 victory. In the following round against Pateros’ D. Reyes and J. Newman and fell 3-6 in the first set and had a close second set that came down to a 6-7 tiebreaker with the Pateros duo winning to move on in the tournament. 

“That was cool they got a chance to play at districts, which was great because that was Jon’s freshman year, so that’s his first time (at districts) and Jocsan, my senior, that was his first time making it to district,” said Leavell. 

The wins that the doubles team and Ortega earned in their opening rounds along with Ewing taking first proved to be significant for Soap Lake as it put the team in the running for the district title against Okanogan. This was something that the coach said he hadn’t even anticipated by the time their matches were over. 

“After Xavier’s match, we had left Grandview and we were past Sunnyside and then I got the call from the tournament director saying, ‘Hey you guys need to come back because you might win this thing,’ which I thought, ‘How is that possible?’” said Leavell. It just ended up being one of those things, there was some upsets and stuff.” 

The deciding factor for the boys district title came down to the final doubles match where Okanogan just needed to beat Entiat to claim the title, he said. 

“We were there literally cheering on Entiat the entire time,” said Leavell. 

When it was all said and done, the Entiat doubles team earned the victory and gave Soap Lake boys tennis their first ever team district title. 

“I was proud of that,” said Leavell. “I was happy with everybody and it was definitely a surprise.” 

Soap Lake’s girls tennis team also earned honors after districts as they were named the 1B Academic State Champions for the 2026 season. The Eagles girls earned a 3.673 GPA over the season with three of them having a 4.0 GPA, according to a statement from Soap Lake School District. 

“Our girls team is very intelligent, all of them are hard-working in class,” said Leavell. “They’re great to coach, but they’re even better to have in class. Just very intelligent and always work hard, so I’m happy they got that because I know how much work they put in the classroom.” 

Coach Leavell was also named Coach of the Year for the second year in a row following the district tournament. 

As Ewing prepares for state play this weekend, Leavell said the main focus is going to be making sure the senior stays humble, hungry to win and has fun while competing. 

“The most important thing you can do is just go out and give it 100%,” said the coach. “If things go your way, great. If they don’t go your way, you can sleep knowing that you did everything you could and at the end of the day that’s been most of what we talked about is just whatever you do, you go out doing your absolute best and whatever happens, happens.” 

Ewing and the Soap Lake Eagles will conclude the season in the state tournament this weekend at the Yakima Tennis Club with the first matches beginning Friday at 8 a.m. 

    Xavier Ewing, a senior from Soap Lake, holds up his first-place medal after winning the 1B District 5 singles tournament.
  

    The Soap Lake Eagles girls tennis team earned the title of 1B Academic State Champions for the 2026 season.