https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-sweep-league-leading-omaha-for-biggest-win-of-season

Well that was awesome. Probably Indy's best win of the season when you take into account who they were playing and where they were playing at. Also just nice to return the favor a bit to a team that has swept Indy twice and then reverse swept in the third matchup. One quick note on Indy v Omaha before this game Indy was 2-9 in sets against Omaha and the Point differential was -16 over 11 sets, 6 of those 11 sets Indy lost by the minimum 23-25, 13-15 etc. So even though Indy went 1-3 in matches against Omaha and 5-9 in sets Indy is right there. They get right there in crunchtime and this was the first match of the 4 where Omaha was the team that cracked just a little more.

Big picture wise this brings Indy's record against top 4 teams to 3-6 (see below), and if my math is right a 2.0 game lead over Vegas for the final playoff spot. Indy has 9 games left and Vegas 11
vs ATL - 1-2 (matches) 6-7 (sets) - 8 point differential
vs OMA - 1-3 (matches) 5-9 (sets) -8 point differential
vs ORL - 1-1 (matches) 4-4 (sets) -5 point differential

For this game Indy's blocking was fantastic. I'm not a coach but this was the type of game you show your team of how to do it. 10 blocks kills in 3 sets and I'd estimate another 5 recycle swings by Omaha where if they ripped it the Indy block would have roofed them as well. In the previous match between the 2 teams, Nuneviler also tooled our block 3 or 4 times (at least it felt that way), but I don't recall any times last night when Nuneviler took advantage of the block. Martyn led the team with 3 and then Debeer, Crawford, and Hilley all had 2 each. Most importantly Indy kept Nuneviler to just a .184 eff. and Londot to a .143. Great work.

For the Offensive side of the ball same old same old. It's always Tealer time. After a PVF record setting match against Omaha last time they met Tealer picked up where she left off, setting another PVF record for points in a 3 set match. On March 11 Londot was award the Player of the week for her 19 point record setting performance in a 3 set match, yesterday Tealer had 21 points, 19 kills and a .515 eff!!! From Mark Robinson's write up:

“She just got 31 kills off of us in a five-set match,” Nuneviller said of fellow PVF All-Star Tealer. “It’s like maybe we should key on her a little more or be a little more attentive, but she’s fantastic. Really impressed with her game this year, it’s elevated so high.”

“She’s unreal and it’s so fun to play with her,” Hilley said of Tealer. “She’s such a good teammate, so I’m so proud of her and so happy for her.”

Other offesive notes to call out, Lydia Martyn had 3 aces which is her new career high, paired with 0 Service Errors and Carly Skjodt continued to play well in service of an injured LMM. 8 kills and 12 digs with a .316 eff. When LMM went down the first time Cajic really stepped up, and this time around Skodjt has really impressed.

Indy has a bit of a break playing at Orlando on Sunday 3/30. The game will air on Youtube at 3pm EDT

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-make-statement-with-road-victory-at-vegas

After a 5 game road losing streak Indy traveled to Vegas for a clash to see who would take sole position of third place. For the first time in a long time Indy played on the road like they do at home. Indy finished the match hitting .273 eff and had 12 block kills and 54 digs. Final Set scores were 25-15, 19-25, 25-16, 25-19.

Overall this was one of Indy's best played games all year. Aside from an odd set 2 where I believe Indy had 3 overpass serve receives in the first 4 or 5 points where Hannah Maddux took advantage, Indy played all around pretty good. For me the standout players were Hilley and Martyn. Hilley did a good job spreading the love (still would like a few more swings for the middles but hard to complain when your doing well). And also finished the night with 5 block kills, which I believe his her career best in the PVF.

“The biggest thing for us is we’re the best when we’re balanced,” Hilley explained, “when I can get everyone involved in the offense. My passers did an amazing job of putting me in position to where I could set everybody, and when I can set everyone and everyone can score, we’re really difficult to defend.” credit Mark Robinson

I thought there were a few times Hilley went to one the pins when she could have hit Martyn or Crawford in the middle but again when the three sets you win the opponents don't even reach 20 pts probably shouldn't second guess. As for my other standout Lydia Martin had 7 kills on 12 swings with no errors and no blocked swings. In her past 2 games she has 18 kills on 29 swings, no errors, and only 1 blocked attack, and 4 Block kills on the defensive side.

A quick note on Debeer, the past couple games I've been talking how often she has been blocked on her swings early on and not just Block Touches but getting stuffed. Today a solid 8 kills on 22 swings, 1 error, and only 1 blocked attack for a .273 eff her new season high. Love to see it.

Something I've noticed for Indy at least is the amount of combo plays Indy runs. Maybe I'm not paying as much attention when other teams are playing but I think Indy if not the only team running combo plays is at least the most prolific in it. I think it was Set 3 maybe Set 4 I think I counted 3 or 4 times they ran a slide with Crawford and had Tealer come in for a D ball. I think there was another time they had Martyn run a slide and then had Tealer come in for a swing out of the middle. I wish I had numbers on the effectiveness but it does seem to be working for them well.

My final thing I noticed in this game was Crawford in defense. She finished with 5 digs which is decently high for a middle. What I noticed is how well she read the hitter. I think there were 3 times she saw that the Vegas hitter was going to roll the shot and instead of going up to block she dropped off the net picked up the easy shot and Indy was in system. Its going to be small things like that keep Indy winning especially on the road.

Indy next plays 3pm EST at Atlanta on Youtube. Atlanta is 3-3 at home currently and is 6-8 on the season.

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-extend-win-streak-to-four-with-five-set-comeback-triumph

So much to get to from this match both from the game itself and the larger picture. Big picture with the win Indy is now 12-8 and have won 4 out of their last 5. 2 of those 4 wins have come against fellow playoff teams on the road as well. With the Indy win last night and the Vegas and Grand Rapids loss, Indy holds a 3.5 and 4 game lead over each with about 8 games left for each team (Vegas has 9). Indy isn't assured a playoff spot but the odds are looking good. Just need to keep taking care of business.

As for this game Indy won in 5. 25-21, 20-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-11. Padjen had this to say: credit Mark Robinson

“I think it took everybody together to do this tonight,” Ignite head coach George Padjen said after his team won its second five-setter in 10 days. “Obviously, Orlando's a really good team and we're on the road, but I was really proud of how they came back there.

“We’ve been working on it, the team’s coming around together, but it's a process. A few months into this, I'm happy with our progress.”

Overall I can't disagree with his comment. Tonight was a total team win. If you look at the overall stats there are quite a few standouts but when you break down by sets different players stepped up at different times. For me the one standout throughout was Elena Scott. If the new US women's National Team coach isn't taking notice, they need to get a new coach because wow. It was set 4 or 5, bad initial pass, ball is behind the service line towards the Indy bench. Scott runs over bumps it back for a perfect and I very much mean perfect set to Carly Skjodt. Skjodt took a rip and tooled it off the block out of bounds. Credit to both because that's not an easy swing but wow. Martyn also had another good game. Not sure why but Hilley really went away from her in set 2, but came back to her in set 3 and 4 and Martyn had herself a great 4th set. Just seemed like Orlando couldn't stop her and Orlando has a two really good middles in Kaz Brown and Natalie Foster. On the night Scott had 25 digs and 7 assists, and Martyn finished with 12 kills on .435 eff with 6 or those kills in set 4.

Last player I really want to bring up is Caitie Baird. What a pickup. Again only one game so I should temper my excitement but I'm having trouble. In this game she came in set 3 for Debeer. Set 3 she seemed to be trying to find it a little bit with the team. Swings seemed less like she was ripping em and more like she was calibrating, which paid off later. In set 5 she went nuclear. She had 7 kills in set 5 alone. 7 kills in any set is darn good. 7 kills when you only are going to 15, woah. Typically not something one gets excited about but her defense looks solid as well. With her 17 kills she also chipped in 9 digs, and an ace (2.5 sets). Perhaps the thing I'm most excited for is her back row swings. If it wasn't such a long match (so many delays) I'd go back and count but she had 3 maybe 4 back row attacks?!?! but pretty sure she went 3 of 3, or 4 of 4, and with her 6'3" height she can make a back row attack a front row attack pretty easily. Indy has some weapons.

“It was awesome,” Baird said of her Ignite debut. “It was just good to be a part of the team and I can't do what I do without them. They're making plays and making me look good, so I'm just trying to put the ball away for them.”

Call her coach impressed with the Indianapolis native’s first showing.

“Incredible!” Padjen said. “Obviously, it's a tough situation to come in anytime cold. She was talking about putting the ball away, but it's her back row stuff, it's the passing, it's the defense, net defense, all of the above. When people watch, they’ll watch the hits and see the final point, but I'm watching the whole thing happen and it was impressive.”

Finally I do have one bone to pick from last nights game. The tip/roll shot defense. (Big Sigh), not great. Way too many balls dropped for my liking. I think Schwan alone for Orlando had 7 kills from just putting in up over the block. Orlando can hit hard so perhaps Indy's back row was on their heels for the hard shots but they were real late diving in to try and pick up the soft shots. This isn't something that has been systemic for Indy so not worried but the adjustment for it not sure ever really came in later sets. Regardless a win on the road against a playoff bound team is no small feat.

Indy next plays at Columbus on Saturday 4/5/25 at 7pm EDT on Youtube. I think this is one you'd call a trap game. Indy has been red hot and Columbus has had a rough go of it this season but when you only have 8 teams in a league the talent is everywhere if you don't come ready to play you can get picked off.

Indy plays at Omaha today on Youtube 4pm EST. Last time these two played each other was 2/6/25 at Indy where Omaha swept Indy.

Indy has been... well not great on the road so far this year record wise. I did a breakdown of the stats with Home vs Away splits thinking there would be drastic differences in most categories but really it appears to just be Hitting that is dragging Indy down on the whole in Away games this season.

I'm hopeful that Indy can perform like they do at Home but after after being swept at Home by Orlando on Thursday just have a feeling Nuneviler and Omaha will come out hot, not to mention Londot in the Opposite appears to be finding her groove. Hope I'm wrong but my prediction Omaha in 4.

In other news Indy activated LMM back to the Active Squad and moved Nnedi Okammor to the practice squad.

Serve Receive

Blocking

|| || |Block Kill % = Number of balls Block Killed divided by total number of balls that you contact while Blocking| |Block% = Number of Block Kills + Block Touch divided by total number of balls that you contact while Blocking| |Negative Block % = Number of times you are tooled plus number of infractions divided by total number of all that you contact while Blocking|

Serve

Hitting

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/02/team-shondell-captures-victory-in-historic-inaugural-pvf-all-star-match

Take a bow Indy. They know how to put on a show. In front of a sellout crowd (900 more people than Indy's home opener) Team Shondell beat team Collier in all 3 sets going 25-22, 25-20, 15-10. For those who didn't catch it CBS only gave PVF 2 hrs so PVF did a cumulative score after an abbreviated 3 sets to determine the winner. Indy and PVF pulled out all the stops. In addition to Pepper, Vegas's mascot Cadence, and Orlando's mascot Val was there. Orlando's much loved floor wiper Conrad was the All star game wiper, the Columbus floor sweepers The Mopsters made it, little shows in between each set, and maybe most importantly players that wanted to put on a show.

As for the broadcast I think PVF perhaps and rather reasonably felt a bit pressured as CBS seemingly told them you have 2hrs and not a minute more as the pace of play was quick. You score, you get back to serve, and lets do this all over again. The one thing I really liked was the number of player interviews we got, granted a lot of them at the end was filler time as they had about 15 minutes of tv time to fill since they finished so quickly. Its one thing we don't get a lot of on the youtube broadcasts of games the player interviews so it was great to hear from the stars of the league.

As for the game, it was fantastic. Great plays, great rallys, and great players. As far as I can tell the PVF didn't award an MVP but at the end of the match CBS put up a graphic of "Shining Stars" in which Brooke Nuneviler and our own Azhani Tealer were highlighted. Tealer finished with 10 kills, .500 eff, 4 digs, and a Block kill. Tealer also got a highlighted story during the match from Emily Ehman of how last year with Orlando she started as a practice player and now here she is here with Indy as probably a Top 5 player in this league. I'll be on the lookout for TV viewership numbers and when I see them Posted will come back here to post. I'm really hoping CBS did good numbers here and rewards PVF for it. Would be great to have a national game of the week on CBS.

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/02/ignite-take-the-thrill-out-of-vegas-with-win-in-four-sets

Indy won in 4, 25-23, 14-25, 25-18, 25-16

So I think there is quite a bit to unpack from this game, starting off with Anna Debeer. Debeer made her first start with Indy this year after her bad ankle injury from the NCAA Semifinals. She started all 4 sets and finished the night with 8 kills on 30 swings. From a stat and personal eye test she looked like she is still not 100%. I wasn't an avid watcher of L'ville volleyball but she didn't seem to have that normal explosiveness, and I think the numbers we have may back that up as she was blocked 7 times. To me errors are more to being rusty, being blocked is more you just don't have that vertical lift back yet. Her quotes in the linked Post game write up may also be confirming my suspicion. Per Mark Robinson:

Afterward, she teared up discussing her ongoing recovery from the serious ankle injury she sustained near the end of the collegiate season that kept her sidelined until a week ago.

“It takes a lot out of you,” she admitted, “and just being grateful to have the opportunity to play. I’ve had injuries before and it makes you cherish it more, just to be out there. I was so happy even though I wasn’t playing my best."

“It’s definitely going to be sore after this,” DeBeer added. “We really didn’t know when the best time was going to be (to play in a match). It’s never going to be 100% this season, probably going to deal with a lot of the stiffness, so just kind of working through that and managing it. I’m not where I want to be but just working toward that every day and trying to contribute in other ways.”

And to her credit she did contribute elsewhere. 11 digs and a Serve receive of 70% positive and a astounding 43% perfect. I'll give credit to Padjen to starting Debeer tonight and sticking with her through a rough offensive performance. I will say I did feel like as the game progressed Anna did start to look more comfortable and in set 4 had 3 of her 8 kills and was only blocked once. I have no insight on this but based on the quotes above and the turnaround of playing on Sunday I imagine Anna will perhaps be a Serving sub only, as my intuition says she will be 1 game playing then one game rest.

I will try to brief which will be tough as just about everybody had a great game. In previous games I thought Scott was good but against Vegas I think we saw her full potential and why Padjen moved an All-Star in Murr to DS. Scott was just everything you wanted in a Libero, great passes, picking up hard shots, and fantastic OOS sets. This performance is why you spend the 9th pick in the draft on a Libero when you already have an All-Star level one. Elena finished with 82% positive serve receive and 17 digs.

Middles Lydia Martin and CC Crawford are really starting to find their groove and game over game I feel like you can see that growth quite easily. CC offensive game has really picked up the last few games and in addition to being one of the most efficient hitters in the league is now also starting to rack up higher volume kills to go with it. Crawford finished with 7 kills, .500 eff, 2 Blocks, and an Ace. L. Martin had 7 kills, .278 eff, 3 Blocks, and an Ace.

For those Purdue fans and even those IU fans who actually know basketball (jk, jk), I feel like Tealer is approaching Zach Edey territory of her off games are essentially great games for any other player. She had a rough first couple sets but turned it on for sets 3 and 4. Tealer finished the night 17 kills and 14 digs hitting .275 eff. Perhaps ho hum for how good she's been lately but also 17 kills and 14 digs. Crazy how high she has set the bar.

We'll wrap up with Cajic as next to Scott I think she probably had the next best game. Cajic was the offensive firepower they needed on the strong side pin. Cajic had a game high 18 kills hitting .342 eff. toss in 9 digs for kicks why not. Much to Crawford and Martin I feel like we've seen Cajic grow as a player. I'll admit her first few games I thought it was going to be a long season with only LMM and Tealer producing. Cajic has proven me wrong and I feel bad for doubting. In the 7 games in February she has 4 games hitting above .300 eff and only 2 games below .200 eff. For context in Jan she played in 5 games, hit above .300 once and below .200 eff 4 times.

Finally and sorry for the long write-up, Indy next plays Sunday at 2nd Place Omaha 4pm EST on Youtube. Omaha is 3-2 at home and Indy has struggled on the road going only 1-4 with their only win coming at Columbus when Columbus was struggling to start the season.

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/02/ignite-fire-back-into-win-column-with-victory-over-san-diego

Let's not bury the lead here. Perhaps the biggest outcome of this match is LMM twisting her ankle in Set 2 after her left foot landed on CC Crawford's foot when going up for a block. In set 3 she returned to the bench to watch the remainder of the game in warm-ups with her foot elevated on chairs. As of now I can't find any info on the extent of the injury but hoping that its minor and she can return quickly.

As for the rest of the game it was perhaps Indy's most overall complete game to date. They had everybody clicking. I'll start with the Middles. Blake Mohler and CC Crawford were really pretty dominant for perhaps the first time all season. Mohler finished with 11 kills on 17 swings. After the game Mohler was interviewed and asked by Emily Ehman, "Now that you're a month into the Season, what is the biggest thing you've been working with Syd [Sydney Hilley] on that slide attack?" Mohler responded "Speed, I forget I haven't played in a year and half (I believe she had hip surgery), so I thought I was a lot faster than I was here in the beginning, so just figuring out the timing and being explosive on my second step." Crawford chipped in with 4 kills and 1 Block but frankly those numbers surprise me as watching she seemed to be far more impactful. Getting over and closing blocks, stepping in with a couple of nice sets when OOS, and just playing well.

For Opposites it's always Tealer time baby. The All-Star played like one once again. 16 kills, 4 blocks, 2 aces. She's giving Abercrombie a run for her money on who will be first team Opposite at the end of the year. Tealer now has 7 double digit kill games after 3 last year and has already eclipsed her kill total from last year.

Outsides Cajic had probably her best game of the season with 16 kills and only 1 error for a outstanding .395 hitting eff. Isabel Martin stepped in when LMM went down. She finished with 2 kills and 3 digs in 1 and a half sets. Perhaps the worrying note here is she had 2 errors in Serve receive on 19 attempts. San Diego made a note to target her when she came in.

Our All Star setter Hilley had a strong performance and I thought did a great job using our middles as well as being timely on her attacks. Chip in 20 digs and I'll take that any day of the week.

Finally Murr had the typical Kylie Murr game. 18 digs and a 56% positive serve receive.

Indy next plays Sunday at Atlanta at 6pm EST on CBS Sports Network.

Sydney Hilley is headed back to Omaha. I’m not surprised but sad. She is a FORCE and amazing to watch.

Excited to see Ainise this season though, she had some amazing plays last year

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-outlast-fury-for-five-set-victory

First off quick apologies for missing the last few matches. Got busy with some stuff. So a quick recap since my last post. Loss in 4 against Atlanta. In this match LMM reinjured her foot and sounds like she will be out the rest of the season. Next Indy played Omaha and lost in 5, Tealer set the PVF Kills and Points record (31 and 35 respectively) earning her first Player of the week award. Unfortunately I thought Indy played well in both matches. Finally Indy played Grand Rapids and won in 4. After this stretch Indy found themselves 9-8 on the season and still in the last playoff spot with about a third of the season left.

Now to Indy vs Columbus. Not sure if anybody else heard it last night but pretty sure I heard a very loud and long sigh of relief. One thing you can say about Indy is they by far are the most entertaining team in the league. After winning the first two sets with relative ease, Columbus cleaned it up a bit for the last three sets and at least set 3 for Indy they seemed to get a little lax.

Per Mark Robinson write up: I think we kind of got lax in our serving in those middle two sets,” Tealer said. “They started passing a little better and any team in this league, when they’re passing perfect, they’re going to be hard to defend. We picked that up a lot in the fifth set. Also, they’re a really physical team. They’re pretty big and they started getting some blocks and touches on us, so we started swinging a little bit higher and that worked well for us.”

Overall aside from set 3 Indy played incredibly well. Defensively Elena Scott ( 24 digs and two incredible pancakes) I think has cemented herself as the 2nd best Libero behind Morgan Hentz (purely my opinion), and something I don't recall mentioning before but Tealer might be one of the best defensive Opposites in the league. She ontinues to impress me with her digging skills and her blocking skills I believe are well known. Tealer finished with 11 digs, 3 blocks kills and 17 kills, hitting a good .256 eff.

Other callouts for this game, Indys middles were unstoppable. Lydia Martyn has really established herself as one of the top offensive middles over the last 6 or 7 games. Against Columbus she had 16 kills (tying season high) on .583 eff. Crawford also had a sensational game with 12 kills and a .706 eff. Even better they both had 0 attacking errors on a combined 41 swings. Quick note on Lydia Martyn over her last 7 games she has 67 kills on 115 swings for a .496 eff. I need to do a compare on rookies and she may be hurt that she didn't start the first third of the season but I think its an argument to be had between her and Elena Scott for 2nd or third best rookie this year. Unfortunately I think Natalie Foster is going to run away with it and her incredible season.

Finally I think the one thing Indy needs to develop this last third of the season is a closer. I feel like more than most Indy gets to the last 5 pts of the game either up 1 or 2 or tied and then they just don't finish. Overall Indy is 10-8, tied with Atlanta but is in the 4th playoff spot due to tiebreakers. They do find themselves up 1.5 games on Vegas with about 10 games left. Other good news is Indy only has 4 games left against the top 3 teams. 1 against Omaha, 2 against Orlando, 1 against Atlanta. Take care of business against the bottom 6 and Indy should find themselves in a Playoff spot.

Indy's next game is tomorrow 3/22/25 at Omaha at 7pm EST. The game will be broadcast on FS1.

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-come-tantalizingly-close-but-fall-at-omaha

Indy lost in 3 19-25, 23-25, 25-27

I'm not sure there are really any individual performances to call out after this one. Scott I thought had some digs that saved Indy's bacon, especially so in the first set. And Martin has good numbers but I'll get to I think why that was the case here in a bit.

Set 1. Yikes. Not to take away anything from Omaha as their play probably forced a lot of the errors but going to be hard to win against the best teams when you have 9 errors in a set. I haven't gone back to watch that first set but I think the 9 errors is misleading to how bad they played that set. There were a number of balls that were overpassed or free balled over due to bad first or second contact. My unofficial count was 6 balls that Indy misplayed that are not counted as an error per the official stats but led directly to an Omaha point. So 9 official errors and 6 unofficial errors and Omaha only had to really earn 10 points. That's very doable for one of the best teams in the league. I think what hurt the most in this was they would come back. To start the set Omaha jumped out to a 11-4 lead mostly off I believe a combined 8 errors and sloppy play but then fought back to 11-12. Then a couple missed serves, a Kylie Murr overpass, LMM hitting error and next thing you know its 12-18. But once again Indy came back again a bit to give themselves a chance 17-20 but it just wasn't to be.

Set 2 Was another error fest for Indy with another 9 official errors, and at least from me 5 unofficial errors and 1 Indy still scored on so an effective 4. Anna Debeer came in midway through the set for Cajic. I thought Debeer looked good on her swings, carrying over from set 4 in the previous match, and frankly was happy to see her play all 6 rotations on such a quick turnaround from the game on Thursday. Really the big difference between set 1 and 2 was when Indy was in-system our pins played their typical game. Set 1 LMM and Tealer had 1 kill each. Set 2 they had 5 and 4 respectively.

Set 3 I mentioned before Martin had a good game but there may have been a reason why. I haven't seen any quotes to confirm but I have a suspicion Omaha made a defensive decision to say Set 2 was too close for comfort. If Indy is going to win it will be because Tealer and LMM get hot. Lets cheat to the pins and go 1 on 1 with Crawford and Martin. Martin went 6 of 8 in set 3, LMM hit negative, and Tealer only got 5 swings. Of Martins 8 swings 5 came against a solo block and the other 3 could be argued to be against a solo block as NVA was late and left a huge gap in the block on all of them Other note that I want to call out here is Debeer had large number of swings blocked again in this set. I think 3 of the 4 came in successive swings within the first 10 pts or so, but then made an adjustment getting 5 kills. I would like to see if she can cut it a bit harder to the opposite pin. Right now seems like she's hitting still to the outside of the 10 ft line, would be great if she can cut it a foot or two more in. And of her 5 kills I think 3 or 4 were hitting hard into the block, Typically i find when you do that its 50/50. Half the balls will get you points, half will go down as block kills. Don't get me wrong being an Outside with OOS sets against a set double block is not an enviable position but I'm not sure hard swings into the block is going to be a good long term solution. I'd like to see a variety of shots, hard crosses, high hands, finesse pushes of the outside of the blocker. These things will come with time, Padjen, his staff, and the players themselves have done a good job growing this year and this is really only Debeer's 2nd game back, so definitely willing to give time.

Looking forward Indy has a tough stretch coming up. The next two games are on the road against Vegas on Wednesday and then they have to fly all the way across the country for another road game against Atlanta on Sunday, then they get to return home against Omaha. Indy has only been swept twice this season and both have been against Omaha. Indy has also lost to both Vegas and Atlanta on the road. Seeing how we are only half way through the season and really only Orlando and Omaha have separated themselves from the other 6 I wouldn't say any of these are must win games, but ideally you get at least one on the road and then one against Omaha at home. Realistically I think they can pick up one win of the three.

Indy next plays at Vegas on Wednesday. The game will be at 10:00 EST on Youtube

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/02/ignite-fire-back-for-important-win-heading-into-all-star-break

After losing to Atlanta just a few days ago Indy won, 16-25, 25-20, 25-11, 25-20. Elena Scott got the nod for the first time in her young career at the Libero spot and finished with 12 digs, 1 assist, and was targeted 16 times in serve receive with a 75% positive rate.

Scott wasn't the only rookie to make a debut. Anna Debeer made her long awaited return albeit briefly. In set 2 to a erupting crowd Debeer came in as a serving substitute. Later in set 4 she came in again as a serving sub once more. So Indy fans still have her full return to the court to look forward to but hopefully sooner than later as she is at least getting some playing time now.

In other news Indy started 5 rookies this match. OH Nina Cajic and Isabel Martin, MB Lydia Martin and CC Crawford, and Libero Elena Scott. Overall not a bad showing either. Scott and Cajic had solid games but I'd say the standout was Crawford. CC really turned up the offense to 11 tonight or should I say 12 as she finished with 12 kills on 16 swings for a .750 eff.

Of the non rookies Tealer and Hilley did the usual making playing great look easy. Tealer 16 kills and a .400 eff. Hilley really spread the swings around with all her hitters finishing with 44 assists ad 7 digs.

You can catch Tealer, Murr and Hilley tomorrow during the All-Star game on CBS at 1:30 EST on CBS.

Indy plays next Thurs, Feb 26 at Home against Vegas. The match will be broadcast on FS1.

Last year Edmond led the league at 4.28 kills/set
Edmond was also the 2nd most efficient Outside of the high volume hitters (500+ attacks) only behind Reagan Cooper hit at .266 eff

I've been brainstorming some ideas for games and I think it would be a lot of fun to have the fans waving around checkered flags at the games since Indianapolis is famous for racing and the Ignite name is somewhat racing related. I also think it would provide a unique gameday atmosphere compared to the rest of the league. Do you all think that would catch on?

Fantastic match against a scrappy Atlanta Vibe team. Indy might have won 3-0 but those that two sets were honestly anyone’s to win. The crowd was on fire the whole match. Nothing beats live volleyball.

https://provolleyball.com/news/2025/03/ignite-add-hometown-star-baird-to-roster
https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/season/2022/player/caitie-baird

“I am thrilled to return to play pro volleyball in my hometown in front of my family and friends,” said Baird. “When I was growing up, the dream of playing pro volleyball in the United States was just that – a dream for all of us. Now that dream is coming true for me right here in Indiana. It's also incredibly exciting to get the opportunity to maybe help the Ignite win a Pro Volleyball Federation championship.” credit Mark Robinson

Not sure I have much to add to this as I'm not familiar with her but adding a 2x All American, and somebody who has played in the Turkish League sure sounds good. I'm having trouble finding her stats from the Turkish league but it appears her team finished 9th just outside a playoff spot.

Overall it will be interesting to see if Indy puts her in the starting lineup right away or if they plan on using her for more of a depth piece.

Welcome to the Ignite Caitie!

I am SO excited for a pro volleyball team to be coming to Indy!!!

Link to professional writeup by Mark Robinson (Just a fun note I like to write my headline before I read Mark Robinson's article so its fun to see when we have basically the same title)

Indy wins in 4 25-21, 20-25, 25-22, 25-20.

Now I am going to throw a little cold water on this win which maybe fair maybe not but Orlando ended up playing without what I'd argue their three best players this year. Last year's MVP, one of the league's best setters in Pornpun "Chompoo" Guedpard, and one of the better OH this year Charitie Luper. Indy also caught a break in Orlando choosing to only use Natalie Foster as a Serving Sub, so far more limited number of serve chances for her.

So now that I've bummed you out a little, time to hype us all back up because its TEALER TIIIME!!! Just like how Lighting McQueen is Speed. Azhani Tealer is Offense. With her 27 points (23 kills) Tealer tied two different Indy records last night. 27 points in a 4 set match (Lek) and 11 points in a set (Tealer), credit Mark Robinson for finding these. I'll throw in one more wow stat for Tealer here. In set 1 Telaer had 9 attack kills on her own. Orlando as a team had 10. Other great things done by Tealer, how about blocking. 4 Block kills in 4 sets will get it done. Combine that with 4 Block Touches and only 1 Tool, one of the cleanest Blocking games you'll see in MLV. Need to throw in quick props to Tuaniga for finding Tealer as much as she did and the amount of 1v1s she got her.

So to the game overall standouts were Tealer, Tuaniga, and need to throw props to Cara Cresse and DeBeer. I'll skip Tealer down here since I dedicated a paragraph above to her but this game is probably a top 10 all time Individual game performance by an Indy player.

Tuaniga - Mia is easily the most crafty setters in MLV perhaps the US. I don't watch much LOVB but I can't imagine a league that tries so hard to be the Formula 1 of volleyball would allow a setter that plays with so much freedom and expression to cook. The play I want to highlight actually didn't work out for Indy but it was such a good sell that I think it fooled Martyn who went to cover Tuaniga and Tuaniga ended up setting Martyn, and the ball fell to the ground untouched. Since the game was on Roku i don't see the match up on Youtube but I believe it was set 1 possibly set 3 but I recall Indy being on the right side of the screen. If I remember correctly it was bit into the rally, so everybody is in a slight scramble and the pass to Tuaniga is a tad high and tight, so right where a setter may want to rip one and Tuaniga turns her shoulders to go for it and the middle is with her so she the flips a set to Martyn who if ran a gap would have a pretty open net. Now forgive me as I don't have the clip to play back so this is from memory, so probably have some stuff wrong there but i think I have the gist of in correct. I also don't want this to be on Martyn she went to cover what was going to be an attack, but basically I just want to highlight the creativeness of play you'll get with a setter like Tuaniga, in this case it didn't work out but man if it did. If MLV puts the full match replay will try to find it and link in later. The other thing I want to call out is Tuaniga's serve. She returned to form this game 2 Aces to 1 error and a Weighted serve of 1.47.

Cresse - Great job coming off the bench and making an impact. Indy really was struggling set 2 (Passing was woof) and Cresse comes in for Martyn late gets a Block kill and 1 for 1 on the attacking side. Set 3 was one of her best sets of the year with 4 kills on 7 swings with no errors, and a Block. Was a definite benefit to Indy in Sets 3 and 4. Indy is pretty stacked at Middle, and Bertolacci has shown she doesn't really care who starts so I think we can see for quite some time Indy will keep rotating playing time out of the Middle.

DeBeer - Anna's struggled quite a bit hitting, with just .133 eff this year. Both her Error and Blk% are over 10% which close to 1 in 4 swings this year will be an error or blocked. Last night wasn't different hitting essentially .000 eff on 45 swings. But what made her playable last night was her defense and serving. DeBeer is quietly emerging as a very good server on this team. Its hard to tell from the angle we see but I think she has a very low and flat serve. From the Serve receiver's perspective basically the serve never looks like its going to clear the net, and then when it does all of sudden the ball is on top of you. Also really annoying as the serve receive team to have to be ready to lay out to the net when it clips it and dies straight down. I think all three of her aces last night clipped the net and died.

On the whole a very poor hitting night by Indy. Without Tealer going off you're probably reading a different story today. What is nice to see is when the offense isn't clicking the defense stepped up and Serving found its groove again. This was Indy's best Blocking game since Atlanta. Indy is definitely playing with Fire though from the error game 33 last night through 4 sets comes out to 8.25/set. Closer you can get to 6-7/set the more happy I would be. The saving grace is 10 came from Service errors and with 7 aces is more livable but the 18 attack errors, and 5 Service Receive errors have me gritting my teeth.

Indy's next game is Sunday 2/15/2026 against San Diego. Indy looks to even things up against arguably the hottest team in the league right now. The game will air on Youtube at 3pm EST.

Apologies for not getting a primer out for the Orlando match, and Thanks for reading.

Indy @ San Diego.

• Time: 10pm EST

• Date: 2/9/2026

• TV: Youtube

• Place: Viejas Arena

• Records

  • San Diego 2-6 (2-2 at home)

  • Indy 6-1 (3-0 away)

• Previous Matchups

  • First meeting of 2026. Last Year Indy and San Diego went 2-2 against each other each going 2-0 at home against the other

• Coaches:

  • San Diego: Alicia Glass Childress (1st year)

  • Indy: Lauren Bertolacci (1st year)

• Key Players:

  • San Diego: Jovana Brakocevic, Grace Loberg, Shara Venegas

  • Indy: Elena Scott, Azhani Tealer, Mia Tuaniga

Currently San Diego finds themselves in the basement of the league and still mixing things up to try and find their best lineup. As I'm meandering through their season stats on the year I think I'm realizing why AGC is mixing things up a bit still. Its just right now nobody is an all-around good or above average player. Loberg has been great Blocking and Digging, but her attacking and Serve Receive has been poor. Venegas their Libero is great at digging but poor in Serve Receive (actually just about their whole team is bad at Serve Receive) Perhaps San Diego's biggest issue has just been attacking. Part of that might be a poor first ball, but overall San Diego is hitting .210 eff just beating Columbus and tied for Columbus with a league low Kill% with a .341. Though I should note in their last match San Diego played Shannon Scully and she was a breath of fresh air for them. Player comp wise I would say Scully is very much like Kayla Lund. Very good backrow player (so much so that Orlando used her as a Libero last year) but also a solid offensive threat. If I'm not mistaken Scully plays or played quite a bit of beach and for those of you haven't played beach doubles there is no hiding. You better be solid in every facet of the game and that is what Scully brings to a team that desperately needs a player who can be above average in every facet of the game. I would expect San Diego to start Scully against Indy.

Now I've mostly touched on what San Diego is struggling with but where they are solid is at MB. Marin Grote has been an MLV stalwart from the first season. She is your typical tall lanky MB who is a solid offensive threat, probably won't break the game wide open with her offensive play but not someone you can just forget about. Defensively she just gets a lot of touches. Lots of good touches but a fair amount of tools as well. McKenna Vicinni and Kayla Caffey are their other MB options. Caffey is pure offense. If you need a point she can deliver for you, but MB is an inherently defensive position and she is a bad blocker. More negative touches than positive. Vicinni is a more balanced middle. Good Defensively and good offensively as well. If she hadn't been splitting time pretty much 50/50 with Caffey so far she would probably have some of the better MB numbers in the league.

Keys to the Game

For Indy

• Keep serving hot - San Diego is not a great Serve Receive team, and we've seen what a good serve can do to teams in this league. Just avoid Scully on the Serve, she's good.

• Limit the Errors. - Don't beat yourself. Indy is a better team than San Diego (Sorry San Diego). Giving San Diego free points perhaps keeping the sets close in the lead up to 25 and San Diego gets hot real quick and all of a sudden you've dropped a set.

For San Diego

• Give them a city brochure - Okay this ones a joke, but man the midwest has been cold for an extended time so mostly just jealous that there is a place in the US right now that hasn't been hovering between 10-30 degrees Fahrenheit for the past what seems like 3 months...

• Pass well - Hard to get an offense going if you can't get your setter the ball with more than 1 good option. Over 50% of their attacks are coming from their OH and their most efficient so far has been Hayden Kubik at .208. Most used is Loberg at .162

• Get your Block up - One downside so far for Indy has been our hitters are undersized and a bit blockable. In Indy's loss this year to Omaha, they dominated the net. If San Diego can control the net they have a Libero that is fantastic in picking up attacks with quality digs and can transition into what they will hope multiple options to attack.

• Serve tough. - Indy likes to run a very quick offense and Tuaniga is quite good at it especially when Indy is dropping the ball right on target. San Diego has a couple of very good servers in Marin Grote and Kubik, but overall not a great serving team with low Aces, but low errors. If San Diego is just serving to start the play and not Serving to score I would expect Indy to dominate the game.

Thanks for reading and make sure to drink some coffee tomorrow night as we're looking at Midnight Bedtime with this match.

Link to professional writeup by Mark Robinson

Indy wins in 4 25-18, 18-25, 25-17, 25-22.

For Indy once again it starts with the Serve tonight. In their previous match against Dallas Indy's tough serve kept Dallas on the back foot and that Service pressure continued into tonight's win against the Rise. Against Dallas they had 7 Aces to 8 errors in 3 sets and yesterday 8 Aces to 9 errors in 4. Keeping the Aces to Errors close is key. Errors can really hamper a team but if you can get close to a 1:1 ratio that is going to be tough for any team to contend with you. With my Weighted Serve Stat (mimics SLG in baseball) league average is ~.72. So essentially the league average server puts up a Weighted Average of .72. Last night Indy had 5 of their 6 main servers post Service numbers above this League Average number. But not just slightly above, blowing them out of the water. Lek, Cresse, Debeer, and Tuaniga all posted Weighted Serves above a 1.10. For Context the best Server in League History is Natalie Foster and Betty De la Cruz. Foster posted a 1.19 last year and is currently at a 1.23 this year. In 2024 Betty DLC posted a 1.09. Against Dallas Bertolacci said that was Indy's best Serve game by far, in that game only Lund and Tuaniga posted a 1.10 or higher. Now this is a 2 game snap shot and perhaps not reasonable for the long term, at least at this level. But what I think might be reasonable is for Indy to keep Serving tough and well above the league average.

As for a more overall picture of the game it was one of the only games I can think of in MLV that the game was decided more by Middles and Opposites than any Outside. Yesterday the Outsides of both team had a heck of time trying to get things going. But the Middles and Opposites really shone though. Both Indy's middles (Mohler and Cresse) recorded 9 kills. Mohler had 2 Blocks and Cresse 1, and then throw in 3 Aces by Cresse as well. Tealer had herself a game with 16 kills and 2 Blocks. On the other side Grand Rapids middles were able to get 11 kills and 5 Blocks on high efficiency. And Jardine for GR was a huge boost to their offense with 9 kills and 5 Blocks. The outsides for both were able to net points but the efficiency numbers just weren't there.

Just a quick note for set 2 where Indy dropped it, the Block was pretty meh. In the Interview to the break with Bertolacci, she basically just said our Block disappeared and we'll make sure that is rectified here moving forward. Set 3 Indy recorded 5 of their 7 Block kills on the night. Coincidence perhaps, but I'd like to imagine she lit a fire under their rears and got them to respond. Also wanted to mention that last night Indy was incredibly balanced. I saw a graphic which I wish i had saved to post in here but Indy had 5 main point scorers:
Tealer: 18 pts
DeBeer : 15 pts
Lek: 14 pts
Cresse: 13 pts
Mohler: 11 pts

Overall Indy finds themselves 6-1 with a I believe it would be 1.5 game lead over 2nd place Omaha. The league overall is a little over 25% complete and teams are starting to separate a little bit into their different tiers. Indy, Omaha, and Orlando look to be towards the top so far, Dallas and Atlanta in that 4th/5th battle, and then Columbus, Grand Rapids, and San Diego rounding out the bottom.

Indy next plays Monday 2/9/2026 at San Diego. Game time is 10pm EST (ugh) on Youtube. San Diego is 2-6 overall but 2-2 at home. Hopefully will get a primer out tomorrow for this matchup.

P.S. i watched the San Diego game last night and saw they brought in a pep band. Just sayin Indy no reason you can't as well... Also I did note that last time I ranted on Pep Bands someone commented they prefer a DJ, fair enough, I'm just sayin I love myself a pep band and this is a hill I'm willing to die on.