It's the Million Dollar Question, Can Ignite Complete Run to PVF Championship?

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PVF Indy Ignite

It's the Million Dollar Question, Can Ignite Complete Run to PVF Championship?

May 10, 2025 - Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF)
Indy Ignite News Release


HENDERSON, Nev. - In an amazing season that has put them on the precipice of claiming the championship in their first year of existence, the Indy Ignite are about to come full circle.

Four months to the day after the upstart team's Pro Volleyball Federation debut, the Ignite will play Sunday in the BIC Soleil PVF Championship finale at Lee's Family Forum. Their opponent? The same Orlando Valkyries that Indy defeated at that opening-night match in front of a sellout crowd at Fishers Event Center.

Indy and Orlando reached the "Match for a Million" (4 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS Sports Network) by ousting the top two seeds in Friday's semifinals. The Ignite won that memorable initial meeting with the Valkyries on January 11 that set the tempo for the season. The teams wound up splitting the regular-season series with two victories apiece.

Orlando has been on a tear recently, extending its current winning streak to six with Friday's four-set elimination of Atlanta. Included in that run was a four-set defeat of Indy on April 25. That most recent meeting marked the third time this season that the team winning the first set lost the next three to drop the match. The Ignite were on the losing end in two, the Valkyries once.

It was a scenario a young Ignite team that relies heavily on five rookies alongside All- PVF First-Team selections Sydney Hilley and Azhani Tealer dealt with on numerous occasions throughout the season: capturing the opening set but then faltering in the next set or two. It happened again Friday against top seed Omaha. Indy dominated the opener 25-18 but the Supernovas squeaked out the next two sets by 25-23 scores. This time, however, the Ignite regrouped and rallied with two of their best sets of the season under the most demanding circumstances to oust the defending PVF champs.

"I thought we did a really good job of staying in the moment, one point at a time, and that's what you've got to do when teams are playing really well," Hilley said. "It did not feel like we had a lot of rookies on the court - and we did - so they were playing like vets out there. I'm so proud of all of them."

That, added head coach George Padjen, is a tangible example of the growth of this team. It bodes well for Sunday's pressure-packed championship match.

"It felt like errors didn't compound on people," he said after Friday's win. "People picked up their teammates. It can be really powerful when you do that, you trust each other and just kind of keep going, keep pulling straight ahead."

And now, they've pulled straight into their biggest match of the season, the 2025 PVF title and a $1 million team bonus on the line. Their head coach has directed and witnessed their evolution to this point. He believes the Ignite are ready to answer the challenge.

"To move forward in the final four in our first year, with a bunch of rookies as everybody says, I've never not been confident in this team," Padjen said. "I've never not thought that we are incredibly dangerous because we've played everybody really well this year. It will be a great match on Sunday, but I like where we're at."



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