FISHERS, Indiana, January 29, 2026.- The fire returned within the Indy Ignite tonight in a dominant 3-1 win over the visiting Atlanta Vibe. The victory moved the Ignite to 4-1 this season and set up a showdown Saturday at Fishers Event Center with Dallas for undisputed possession of first place in Major League Volleyball.
Indy took care of Atlanta by scores of 25-18, 16-25, 25-19, 25-18. It came on the heels of the Ignite dropping their home opener to Omaha five days ago, a match where the Ignite lacked the passion and aggressiveness to successfully compete. That wasn’t the case against Atlanta. Indy scored the first five points of the match, and despite a stumble in the second set, put the pedal back down to close out the triumph in four frames.
“It’s very important for us to understand that we don’t need to play well to win; we need a win,” Indy head coach Lauren Bertolacci said. “I think we did a very good job tactically, and we got some good blocks and defense in key moments, and some good tactical serves. Regardless of if we saw the best version of the Ignite today, we were still able to win – and that’s really, really important for us.”
The Ignite blasted to an 11-3 lead in the opening before some fans had settled into their seats. Behind middle blocker Blake Mohler’s four kills and two blocks, opposite hitter Azhani Tealer’s four kills, a block and a service ace, along with five kills and four digs from outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh, Indy cruised to the set win by seven points. Setter Mia Tuaniga added back-to-back aces on top of her 10 assists.
Atlanta regrouped with runs of 7-1 and 6-1 to take the second set, but from that point forward it was pretty much all Indy. The Ignite broke from a 9-all deadlock in the third set with a 7-2 run, then ended the set on a 5-2 spree that included consecutive Member-Meneh aces and a pair of Tealer kills.
An 11-2 surge in the fourth set lifted the Ignite from a two-point deficit to a seven-point advantage, and the Vibe never got closer than six again as Indy closed out the match.
“Indy is a really good team, a really good team,” complimented Atlanta coach Kayla Banwarth, “and I don’t think we came ready to play. Clearly in the first set when we went down 5-0, we got kind of clobbered. We made some nice adjustments with our block in the second set, but I thought Indy also had a down set in that second set. They gave us some free points with a few errors that are uncharacteristic of them, and they cleaned it up in the third and fourth. That’s a good team and I don’t think we came ready to compete today.”
Tealer led Indy’s scoring with 19 points (16 kills, two aces and a block). Member-Meneh scored 15 points on 10 kills, an Ignite-record four aces (half of the team’s eight aces that’s also a new franchise standard) and a block, to go along with 11 digs. Mohler added 14 points with seven kills and a personal-best seven blocks. Libero Elena Scott set a season high with 18 digs. Outside hitter Kayla Lund also notched her season best with 17 digs to go with eight kills and a block.
“It’s just so easy to play well when you have a group of girls who are so like-minded,” Mohler said. “We all love each other so much and everyone’s so supportive, no matter what your role is on the team. That’s just been really fun and we train really hard, so playing is just a picture of what we do in the gym every single day.”
Bertolacci appreciated the effort from Mohler, making her second start of the season.
“She’s jumping through the roof right now, so she’s hard to get past,” the coach said. “She does a great job, very energetic player and blocking really well in the two games that she’s been in, so we’re really, really happy with her.”
The battle for first place in MLV commences at 7 p.m. ET Saturday when the Ignite host the Pulse.
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