by FISHERS, Ind. (May 1, 2026) – The Indy Ignite just keep making Major League Volleyball history. With tonight’s win over the visiting Columbus Fury, the Ignite collected their 22nd victory of the season to eclipse the league record of 21 set last year by Omaha.
The Ignite have thoroughly enjoyed the friendly confines in 2026. After dropping the home opener in January, they’ve reeled off 12 consecutive triumphs at Fishers Event Center. But this one was the toughest.
With her team’s top seed already secured for next week’s MLV Championship, Ignite head coach Lauren Bertolacci fielded a lineup featuring five players who’d started five matches or fewer this season, and she stuck predominantly with the same group throughout. What Bertolacci saw impressed, as Indy rallied to win in five sets, 25-22, 20-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-13.
“We said in the locker room that we’re playing to get the record today and we put a team out there that we believed we could do that with,” the first-year Ignite coach said. “I’m super pumped, it was one of the most fun games of the season. That was our first five-setter at home, so it was really exciting.”
Bertolacci was perhaps her most animated on the sideline this season as she urged her team on after Indy fell behind two sets to one. Sparked by breakout play from outside hitters Emoni Bush (making her fourth start) and Taylor Landfair (first start), the Ignite broke away from a 10-9 lead in the fourth set to take it going away by seven points. The fifth set found Indy on the brink of defeat, trailing 13-11. A Bush back-row kill drew the Ignite within a point. The Fury then committed a rotation infraction followed by a pair of attacking errors to end the match.
Ignite rookie Emma Halter made her first start at libero, finishing with 20 digs, five assists and a 76 percent positive reception rate. The Indianapolis native said the attitude on the court was to never give up, even when the situation appeared dire.
Bush led Ignite scorers with 24 points on 20 kills, two blocks and two service aces – surpassing her total point output (23) for the nine matches she played in prior to tonight.
“In my head going into the game, I was just going to be aggressive, and whether that worked for me or whether it didn’t, I was just going to live with that,” said Bush, the MLV rookie from Oklahoma. “I was going to go up there and take big swings, and even if I got blocked or hit it out, I was going to go up to the next point and take another big swing. That was my mentality from the start and it worked.”
MLV Championship Pairings Set
No. 1-seeded Indy will meet No. 4 Omaha in the first MLV Championship semifinal Thursday at Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas, in a rematch of last year’s semifinals when the fourth-seeded Ignite upended the top-seeded Supernovas in a wild five-setter.
Dallas, host to the MLV Championship, is the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 3 San Diego in the second semifinal. The Ignite-Supernovas match starts at 7 p.m. ET, with the Pulse-Mojo battle to follow. The title match that pays a million-dollar bonus to the MLV champion is set for 3 p.m. Saturday, May 9.
