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. Tickets are available at IndyIgniteVB.com.
