FISHERS, Indiana, April 19, 2026.–The top teams in Major League Volleyball squared off tonight in a much-anticipated encounter at a sold-out Fishers Event Center, but it wasn’t much of a battle. The first-place Indy Ignite handled the second-place Dallas Pulse in four sets, sweeping their season series and lowering their magic number to clinch the No. 1 playoff seed to two.
Indy upped its record to 19-5 while Dallas fell to 18-7 (with four of those losses to Indy). Any combination of Ignite wins and/or Pulse losses totaling two in the remaining two weeks of the regular season secures Indy the top seed in the four-team MLV Championship scheduled for May 7-9 on Dallas’ home court.
Indy steamrolled Dallas in the first two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-18, sending the home crowd of more than 6,500 into a frenzy. Led by opposite hitter Azhani Tealer’s 10 kills, eight from outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh and six by outside hitter Anna DeBeer, Indy hit at a 47.8 percent kill rate with 31.0 percent efficiency in the opening two frames. Meanwhile, the outstanding Ignite defense limited hard-hitting Dallas to an 18.8 percent kill percentage with a meager 1.6 percent efficiency.
The Pulse rebounded to win the third set 25-22 and then jumped ahead 5-0 in set four. That’s when the Ignite put the hammer down once more, going on a 10-1 spree to take control. They eventually won the set 25-21 on Tealer’s game-high 19th kill for the 3-1 match victory.
“They’re a very, very good team,” Indy head coach Lauren Bertolacci said of Dallas. “I am shocked that we’ve swept them in the season. They played really well in the third and the fourth set, and it took us to have to adjust and get into another gear. They switched their lineups around a little bit, so at the end of the day, I was very, very happy with what we tactically executed today.”
Tealer, the reigning MLV Player of the Week, led the Ignite in scoring for the fourth straight match, combining for 19 kills and a block to reach 20 points (also for the fourth consecutive match) and blasting away for a hitting percentage of 61.3 percent with 45.2 percent efficiency. Middle blocker Lydia Martyn started for the first time in seven matches as she worked back from a foot injury and responded with 10 kills, five blocks and a service ace. Member-Meneh finished with 13 kills and two blocks.
Setter Mia Tuaniga passed around 55 sets – one off her season best in a four-setter – and padded her stat sheet with nine digs, four kills and two aces. She once again enjoyed distributing the scoring wealth to an array of teammates.
“Every hitter is available and I just have full trust in everyone,” Tuaniga said. “Even if someone struggles for one or two plays, it doesn’t ever diminish after that. They’re always hungry and I can just feed whoever and it’s going to have a night like that.”
Member-Meneh’s 16 digs led four Ignite players in double digits, as Tealer, DeBeer and libero Elena Scott recorded 11 apiece. Bertolacci was equally as pleased with her team’s defensive effort as with the offense. The Ignite limited Dallas’ Mimi Colyer and Sofia Maldonado Diaz, who rank 1-2 in MLV in kills and points, to a combined 23 kills, 27.7 percent kill percentage and 8.4 percent efficiency. As a team, Dallas hit at just 29.1 percent and was 13.4 percent efficient.
“We did what we needed to do and we kept Mimi and Sofia down under .200 (efficiency), and that’s always going to put us in a good position to win,” Bertolacci said. “We did a lot of work to make sure that would happen. We did a really good job in defense tonight, and that was very important. Shout out to Elena, who had a phenomenal match, honestly.”
That, Tealer added, was all according to plan … game plan, that is.
“Our staff works very hard to come up with game plans and put us in positions to defend outside hitters and a team like that,” Tealer said. “When they come up with game plans like that and we trust it and we execute it, it’s going to turn out really well.”
The Ignite make their final road trips of the regular season in the coming week, heading Thursday to Orlando (7 p.m. ET on Roku Channel) and Sunday to Atlanta (3 p.m., CBS Sports Network). They close with a pair of home matches, against Columbus on May 1 and San Diego on May 3.
Dallas will travel to San Diego to face the Mojo at Viejas Arena on Friday, April 24, at 9 p.m. CT, with the match streaming live on Scripps Sports Network and Victory.
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