FISHERS, Indiana, April 12, 2026.- Any need to worry about a letdown from the Indy Ignite was misguided. Three days after clinching a place in next month’s Major League Volleyball playoffs, the Ignite took care of business today, sweeping visiting Atlanta at Fishers Event Center.
The Vibe tested the Ignite in the final two sets but Indy still prevailed by scores of 25-19, 28-26, 27-25. The Ignite are now 18-4 this season, good for first place by 1.5 games over Dallas with six matches to play in the regular season.
“Atlanta’s a tough team and they’re always going to push back and do good things and get us into well beyond those extra points,” Ignite head coach Lauren Bertolacci observed. “It’s good we could manage it and win those, and that’s important experience for us.”
The Ignite relied on their experienced and explosive pin hitters – Azhani Tealer and Leketor Member-Meneh – to carry them against the Vibe. Opposite hitter Tealer led Indy with 19 kills, hitting 55.8 percent with 47.1 percent efficiency. Outside hitter Member-Meneh struck for 13 kills, hitting 44.8 percent on 34.5 percent efficiency. The duo was particularly impressive at the conclusion of the second set, when they combined for eight of Indy’s last nine points to secure the overtime win.
As a team, the Ignite were successful on 41.5 percent of their hits with an efficiency of 28.0 percent in the match. Both figures were above their season averages that rank second in MLV. Indy’s defense limited the Vibe to 19.4 percent efficiency, improving the Ignite’s league-leading opponents’ efficiency to 19.9 percent for the season.
“Congrats to Indy, they’re in first place for a reason,” Atlanta coach Kayla Banwarth said. “They’re incredibly talented. I have a lot of respect for all of their players, for Lauren. These numbers don’t lie; they had a great match. Azhani doing Azhani things and Lek had a great match as well. When you have multiple pins firing the way that they were firing, that’s going to be hard for us to stop.”
The Ignite rarely trailed in the first two frames, though they did go down a set point in the second before scoring three straight on two Member-Meneh kills sandwiched around one from Tealer after Member-Meneh made a sensational diving save to keep the point alive.
Atlanta stormed to a 13-7 lead in the third set before Indy edged its way back. The Ignite went ahead 24-23 on a Tealer back-row kill, then the Vibe dodged a pair of match points before another Tealer kill and a Lydia Martyn block closed out the victory.
“I hope they always understand that we’re never really out of it,” Bertolacci said. “Volleyball is a game where you’re down four points, you side out and it’s three points. You get one ace and all of a sudden, it’s two points and you feel really much quickly like you’re back in the game. I think we try and keep that mentality all the time, and it’s good that we did.”
Tealer credited setter Mia Tuaniga (39 assists, 10 digs) for “setting me great and I was just going for it.” She also said there was no chance of a letdown following Thursday’s exhausting five-set win at San Diego that locked Indy into the playoffs.
“She wouldn’t let that happen, for one,” Tealer said, pointing to Bertolacci sitting beside her in the post-match news conference. “We just want to win all the time and clinching is not only what we came here to do. We want to win championships, so we’re still working towards that. So, no letdown at all.”
The Ignite hit the road Thursday for a trip to Grand Rapids (9-14), with the match streaming live at 7 p.m. ET on WTHR+ and the MLV YouTube channel.
Atlanta returns home to Gas South Arena for the team’s next match at 7 PM ET on April 17 against the San Diego Mojo.
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