{"id":130342,"date":"2026-01-24T13:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130342\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:07:08","slug":"orlando-valkyries-championship-rematch-ends-in-a-3-1-loss-against-indy-ignite-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130342\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Valkyries’ championship rematch ends in a 3-1 loss against Indy Ignite | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Orlando<\/p>\n

Orlando Valkyries outside hitter Charitie Luper (1) goes for the dig to keep her team afloat against the Indy Ignite on Thursday at Addition Financial Arena.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of the Orlando Valkyries<\/p>\n

The City Beautiful\u2019s Major League Volleyball team, the Orlando Valkyries<\/a>, lost its first game of the 2026 season against the two-way force of the Indy Ignite on Thursday night at the Addition Financial Arena.<\/p>\n

Despite losing to the Valkyries in the 2025 championship, Indy returned the favor by defeating Orlando in a hard-fought four-setter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What began as a tight race for victory turned into a decline for the Valkyries as they struggled against the Ignite\u2019s defensive pressure throughout the matchup. Valkyries outside hitter Charitie Luper<\/a> soared, finishing the matchup with 17 digs, 15 kills and five blocks, though it wasn\u2019t enough to put out the flame of the Ignite.<\/p>\n

Orlando Valkyries head coach Amy Pauly<\/a> said in the postgame press conference that the team needed to make adjustments earlier to fare against Indy’s deep bench, believing the Ignite runs a disciplined system both offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do such a good job of getting off of the net, getting back on transition and play great short-court up at the net,\u201d Pauly said. “I thought we talked about the right things on film, and we just couldn’t necessarily get over the hump tonight to execute some of the things that we wanted to do.”<\/p>\n

The opening kill from opposite hitter Brittany Abercrombie<\/a> gave the Valkyries a hot start with a 3-to-4 point lead at the top of the first set.<\/p>\n

An attack from Indy Ignite outside hitter Emoni Bush, followed by a service ace from her teammate, outside hitter Kayla Lund, finally put the Ignite in the lead at 17-16 to give them the push they needed to take the first set 18-25.<\/p>\n

Losing the lead did not shake Orlando, as they managed to recover and win the 25-23\u00a0in the second set, courtesy of middle blocker Kazmiere Brown<\/a>, who delivered a .333 hitting efficiency and led the Valkyries with three blocks before halftime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The game’s intensity continued coming out of the locker room as both teams maintained a tight scoring pace, including two nail-biting rallies that resulted in a point on each side.<\/p>\n

Indy was able to shut down Orlando defensively and secure a close 25-27 win in the third set.\u00a0 Indy Ignite middle blocker Blake Molher \u2014 who was briefly with the Valkyries in 2024 \u2014 commanded the court, finishing the matchup with six blocks and two digs while hitting .357 with seven kills.<\/p>\n

“We wanted to play aggressive in transition [and] do our best to slow down [Orlando Valkyrie opposite hitter Brittany] Abercrombie. She’s a superstar for a reason,” Indy Ignite head coach Lauren Bertolacci said in the postgame press conference. “I think we did a good job slowing her down and being able to take advantage in transition.”<\/p>\n

Former Valkyrie and Indy Ignite opposite hitter Azhani Tealer delivered the final blow with a kill that ended Orlando’s undefeated streak, finishing the fourth set 18-25\u00a0 and putting the Valkyries at a 3-1 season record.<\/p>\n

Orlando as a whole ended the matchup with a .100 hitting efficiency and 38 kills on a 28% kill percentage, trailing behind Indy, which finished with a hitting percentage of .278, 66 kills and a 44% kill rate.<\/p>\n

Even after the loss, Brown said you must have a “short memory” when competing in the MLV.<\/p>\n

“It’s a quick turnaround, so we take this, learn from it, and then prepare for Dallas,” Brown said. “A good team and another opportunity to play on our home court.”<\/p>\n

The Valkyries return to home court at the Addition Financial Arena for their next matchup, taking on the Dallas Pulse (2-1, MLV) at 3 p.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando Valkyries outside hitter Charitie Luper (1) goes for the dig to keep her team afloat against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140,110,6372],"class_list":{"0":"post-130342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orlando","9":"tag-orlando-headlines","10":"tag-orlando-news","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-volleyball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}