Uniting athletes: 2024 fall tournament

Union’s 2024 Fall Tournament took place from October 17-October 19. Union hosted soccer and volleyball teams from 15 participating academies. Students gathered from all over the country coming from as far as Apopka, Florida to participate in the biggest gathering of Adventist student athletes for the year. Students arrived on Wednesday afternoon, started playing games on Thursday, played the championship games Saturday night, and departed Sunday morning.

Union has hosted Fall Tournament for years and was excited to utilize the new Reiner Wellness Center for a tournament for the first time. There were also select games that were available to watch through live-stream for supporters that were unable to be present to cheer on their schools. 

Buell Fogg was the announcer for all of the volleyball games hosted in the Thunderdome. A parent who also attended Union shared their sentiments on this tradition that began before their days at Union, “It’s really touching to see that some traditions are still hanging on all these years later. I love the fact that my kid gets to experience interacting with some of the same people that were present when I was a student.”

The tournament started off with pool play that determined the seeding for the rest of the weekend. By Saturday night, the top four teams in volleyball that competed for a chance to play in the championship game were Forest Lake, Georgia-Cumberland, Collegedale, and Spring Valley. Collegedale and Forest Lake played the final game resulting in Forest Lake taking home the championship title with a 2 set win.

by Olivia Sweet