Ignite Bounce Back with Sweep over Fury
Home Crowd Urges Indy to Fourth Victory of Season
By: Mark Robinson
FISHERS, Ind. (February 2, 2025) – The Indy Ignite were determined to get back to their winning ways. They found the perfect recipe of aggressive play in front of an excited home crowd tonight, sweeping the Columbus Fury by scores of 25-20, 25-20, 25-17.
The victory ended a two-match losing skid and advanced Indy’s record to 4-2 on the Pro Volleyball Federation season. The match was also the first at home following three straight on the road, including a difficult five-set loss late Friday night at Vegas.
Back in the friendly confines of Fishers Event Center, the Ignite fed off the energy of the crowd. There was even some star power sitting courtside: four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson East checked out the action in advance of her role as co-host of the Pro Volleyball Federation All-Star Match on Feb. 22, also at Fishers Event Center.
“Friday was a tough match,” Ignite head coach George Padjen said, “but to have the maturity to travel (home) yesterday and come back and play as well as they did is really a testament to their ability and who they are as people.
“I thought the energy was good; the crowd helps with that, the support they get,” Padjen added.
“I thought we were clean from the pass to set game, gave our hitters a lot of opportunities against one-on-one (defenders). It was, all around, a pretty good game.”
Ignite opposite hitter Azhani Tealer smiled when asked the importance of the home fans’ support in helping the team bounce back from the back-to-back losses. Indy is now 3-0 at Fishers Event Center.
“It’s fun to play in this environment,” Tealer said. “We need to take advantage of it. The crowd is so much on our side and creates such energy for us that it’s really fun and easy to play here.”
The Ignite trailed 16-14 in the opening set before catching fire to outscore Columbus 11-4 the rest of the way. Tealer had two kills and a block and outside hitter Nina Cajic added three kills to spark the comeback run.
Set two was knotted at 13-13 until the Ignite scored four of the next five points and didn’t trail again to take a 2-0 match lead. The Ignite were also up 2-0 at Vegas on Friday before the Thrill rallied to convert a reverse sweep victory. The Ignite made sure it wouldn’t be a repeat, jumping on Columbus for a 7-2 lead in the third set and pulling away for the eight-point set win to clinch the sweep.
“That was like the biggest thing we talked about in the locker room before coming out (for the third set),” Ignite middle blocker Blake Mohler said. “Just knowing that Columbus wasn’t going to give up and that we had to stay really consistent and level-headed and not get up or down. Just point-by-point chip away and do what we know that we can do on our side of the net and let the game go.”
Indy’s net play was significant in the victory. After being outscored 16-12 by Vegas in blocks on Friday, the Ignite dominated the Fury 14-3. Middle blocker Lydia Martyn led the Ignite with five blocks, Mohler and Tealer had three apiece.
“We’ve been working on our block at the net for a couple weeks now, really trying to get better,” Tealer said. “I think we were the worst in the league a couple weeks ago. Kudos to George and we’re kind of honed in on that, so it’s been good. It was good to see that work out tonight.”
Outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh led the Ignite with 13 kills, Cajic had 11 and Tealer seven. Setter Sydney Hilley continued her astounding play with 35 assists, 13 digs, a kill and a block.
“They imposed their will on block and on attack and they dominated the net, and that’s the name of the game,” Columbus coach Angel Perez said after his team dropped to 0-7. “I think they beat us 14-3 in blocks and we had about 11 errors in attack; they only had like five. When you add that up, that's about 20 points difference and we lost (each set by) five, five and seven. That’s where the game went.”
Indy hosts 2024 PVF champion Omaha at 7 p.m. ET Thursday, on Women & Girls in Sports Night, which includes a pre-match panel discussion featuring several Indianapolis women in sports leadership positions. Tickets are available at IndyIgniteVB.com. The match also streams live on the PVF YouTube Channel.
Indy Ignite Volleyball Editor Mark Robinson may be reached at Mark@indyignitevb.com