Indianapolis, IN

‘Fast-paced and a roller coaster:’ Indy Ignite electrify fans in season opening win

Published

12 months ago

January 12, 2025

‘Fast-paced and a roller coaster:’ Indy Ignite electrify fans in season opening win

FISHERS — After a nervous, out-of-rhythm first set that ended in a 25-13 loss to the Orlando Valkyries, the light turned on for the Indy Ignite who promptly swept the next three sets for a season-opening win inside the sold-out Fishers Event Center.

The victory was a team effort led by a dynamic duo of outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh and opposite Azhani Tealer, who combined for 44 kills and 49 points of the Ignite’s 88 total points scored.

Inside the arena, official attendance of 6,089, the fans were rowdy and raucous. “Thank you fans for making history with us,” the announcer shouted. This was Indy’s newest chapter in women’s professional sports.

“It reminded me a lot of the Fever games,” said Mandy Gripe, a season ticket holder for the Ignite and Fever. “I think that women’s sports have crossed the tipping point, and it just feels really cool to see it and witness all of it. It’s history.”

The Ignite played behind until the second set when the team took a 15-14 lead after a string of kills by Member-Meneh. Next point? Another kill by Member Meneh. After setter Sydney Hilley dumped on two, the Ignite were up 18-16.

The Valkyries, who swept their season opener Thursday against the San Diego Mojo, didn’t take another lead the rest of the match. Set two: 25-19. Set three: 25-17. Set four: 25-21.

Hilley racked up 44 assists and libero Kylie Murr scoured the floor for 12 digs and five assists. Rounding out the key players of the match with five points each were middle blocker Blake Mohler, outside hitter Nina Cajic and middle blocker Caroline Crawford.

After the match, hundreds of fans waited in line for autographs from Ignite players. Luke Miller and Asher Wilson came to the opener not knowing what to expect.

“I’ve always been a little bit of a fan of volleyball, so I thought I’d come check it out, you know?” said Miller. “I was surprised how electric it was. (Member-Meneh) has some hops. She can jump.”

Member-Meneh, who serves at more than 60 miles per hour, also had 18 digs.

In attendance for the team’s first win were Indianapolis Colts player Kenny Moore, commissioner Jen Spicher of the Pro Volleyball Federation and every mascot in the city, including the Colts’ Blue, there to support Ignite mascot Pepper’s debut.

“What most struck me upon entering was the number of young girls with their parents,” said Jake Query, sports radio host of ‘Query & Company’ on 107.5 The Fan. “I love that they have another option for role models.”

One role model who stood out was Member-Meneh, he said. “Leketor is Gary Brackett, Lance Stephenson and Brian Cardinal. The kind of selfless lunch pail athlete Indy loves.”

After attending the Ignite match, Query said he believes the team will catch on.

“Volleyball is a rhythm, momentum sport,” he said. “It is fast paced and a roller coaster.”

For Annabell Gripe, who plays for the Monon Select Club, she said there was a “wow” factor inside the arena.

“It was more than I expected it to be,” she said. “This is crazy that it’s a sold-out women’s sport. Women’s sports are so underrated.”

Her grandmother Gail Gripe, who coached volleyball at Lafayette Jeff and was there before Title IX was enacted, said the Ignite were another step toward gender equality in sports.

“I think that the Fever and the women’s Olympic soccer team and all of this has started this really good ignition. Women’s sports has really been taken notice of,” she said. “They’re so good at what they do. The fact that this was sold out, that’s very important. There are going to be more people that have to come back for this.”

The Ignite’s next match is 7 p.m. Thursday against the Grand Rapids Rise at the Fishers Event Center.

Saturday’s match was the first of 28 for the Ignite this season. Six of those will be broadcast nationally in partnership with CBS and FOX Sports. The remaining matches can be streamed on the PVF YouTube channel. The six Ignite matches designated for national broadcast are:

· January 18 at Columbus, CBS Sports Network, 10:30 p.m. (tape delay)
· February 2 vs. Columbus, FS2, 6 p.m.
· February 8 at Orlando, FS2, 7 p.m.
· February 16 at Atlanta, CBS Sports Network, 6 p.m.
· February 27 vs. Vegas, FS2, 8 p.m.
· March 22 at Omaha, FS1, 7 p.m.

Indy will also play host to the PVF All-Star Match that airs live on the national CBS network at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 22. It will be the first all-star match in league history and the first pro volleyball match to air on CBS’ main over-the-air network.

Follow the Indy Ignite on Facebook, Instagram and X. Purchase tickets.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

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Indianapolis, IN

Police recover body of missing teen, RJ Williams, in White River

Published

43 minutes ago

January 3, 2026

Press Room

Police recover body of missing teen, RJ Williams, in White River

Police recovered the body of a missing 16-year-old with autism Jan. 3 in the White River, a few hundred feet from the Broad Ripple McDonald’s, where he was last seen.

Emergency personnel loaded the body of Robert “RJ” Williams Jr., shielded by baby blue sheets, into the coroner’s van Saturday afternoon. Family members stood nearby, grasping each other in hugs. A ‘missing’ poster for Williams was taped to the wooden steps leading down to the water where his body was found.

“RJ was a good kid. He didn’t bother nobody,” Williams’ aunt Patricia Madison said through tears. “He loved his family, and now he’s gone.”

Police had been searching for Williams after he was last seen between a McDonald’s and a bus stop on Dec. 17 in the 1100 block of Broad Ripple Avenue, according to a missing person’s flyer. It also stated that he suffered from mood disorders and had a history of psychosis. The flier also said he had the “mentality of a 10 or 11-year-old.”

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Capt. William Carter said they do not suspect any foul play. Cameras in the area caught footage of Williams walking toward the river dock, he said. They also obtained the last message he sent, he said, where he said he was walking on the ice and sent a picture.

Around 1 p.m. on Jan. 3, an officer identified what looked to be a person under the water’s surface while conducting a drone search. A dive team and first responders then recovered the body, and family members identified him as Williams.

Capt. William Carter speaks after Robert “RJ” Williams Jr. found in White River

Capt. William Carter speaks on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Broad Ripple.

“That’s obviously a heartbreaking development in a case that has deeply affected our community. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for,” Carter said. “We do extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.”

The discovery ended over three weeks of police and community search efforts. On Jan. 2, IMPD confirmed it was shifting to a recovery process, believing he fell into the river. Detectives and IMPD’s K9s searched the area and located a backpack and gym bag belonging to the teen on a dock along White River, police said previously.

Steps away from the river, Madison said it was difficult to know they had been searching for weeks, but he was so close. She said he loved video games and was close with her son. She stressed how close she and Williams were, being both his caregiver and basketball coach, and how she was more than an aunt.

“RJ was loving, caring, and he would do anything for anybody. He didn’t like people to be bullied,” she said. “He loved his dad and his mom and his sisters, all his family very much. RJ was loved by everybody that he came in contact with.”

Now, with closure that he was found, Madison said his family will try to move on. She asked that people with relatives who have mental disabilities keep them close and make sure they are aware of their surroundings.

The case rallied many in the community. Dozens of neighbors have gathered on multiple occasions to search the area and put up posters.

“It means a lot to us because people just came out of nowhere asking to help look for him,” she said. “People we didn’t even know, never met, that was willing to help. They have literally been helping us every single day, looking for him.”

Several of those who sought to find Williams showed up to pray and give support Saturday as police retrieved his body. Debra Porter, who knew the family through school, said the neighborhood came out to uplift the family, and she said she hopes this tragedy brings the community closer.

“Our heart goes out to another mother. Our heart goes out to another family. Our hearts go out to those that are suffering. That’s where our hearts are,” she said. “We come together as one another, just embracing one another and supporting.”

The USA TODAY Network – Indiana’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Have a story to tell? Reach Cate Charron by email at ccharron@indystar.com, on X at @CateCharron or Signal at @cate.charron.28.

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Indianapolis, IN

Philip Rivers’ starting stint with Colts should make us appreciate him more

Published

6 days ago

December 29, 2025

Press Room

Philip Rivers’ starting stint with Colts should make us appreciate him more

INDIANAPOLIS — Philip Rivers wasn’t able to change the course of this Colts season.

A promising campaign that seemed lost when Daniel Jones tore his Achilles tendon in Jacksonville effectively ended when the team was eliminated from the playoffs before Rivers led the Colts onto the field against the Jaguars again.

The collapse, the kind that hasn’t been seen in the NFL in thirty years, prompts big questions about the future of the franchise, questions that can only be answered definitively by Carlie Irsay-Gordon in her first year as principal owner.

Those answers will come later.

For the moment, it is OK to appreciate what Rivers brought to Indianapolis, the NFL and the sport at large at the age of 44, even though he wasn’t able to make the Colts’ wildest dreams come true by leading the team to the playoffs.

“If this was the last one … shoot,” Rivers said. “I told you guys I wouldn’t have any regrets about coming back and I don’t. Other than us not winning, right – us not winning. It’s been an absolute blast for three weeks.”

Three starts in December at the age of 44 were not going to change Rivers’ Hall of Fame credentials. Not unless he somehow led the Colts to a Super Bowl, the sort of fairy-tale ending that would have been in production at Disney before the halftime show began in Santa Clara.

But the three starts Rivers made in December gave the NFL world a chance to fully appreciate what made Rivers great, on the field and off, as a representative of the game.

Rivers wasn’t the same player he’d been in 2020.

Far from it. The old shotput motion was still there, but he clearly had less velocity on his throws, leading to misses that Rivers could have made in his sleep the last time he took the field. After a surprising performance against San Francisco on Monday Night, Rivers fell back to Earth on Sunday.

“I thought this was probably the worst game I’ve had of the three,” Rivers said. “Just couldn’t get in really any sync or rhythm.”

The game-changing interception Rivers threw in the fourth quarter brought home his diminished physical ability. Rivers fluttered an out route to slot receiver Josh Downs, leaving plenty of time for Jacksonville cornerback Jarrian Jones to undercut it for a pick.

“I wasn’t fooled by any means,” Rivers said. “It was just a bad throw.”

The throws shouldn’t be the takeaway from these three starts.

Rivers wasn’t fooled. By just about anything. Five seasons after he last started in the NFL, Rivers flew back into Indianapolis on the whim of Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard, stepped back into a quarterback meeting room and immediately knew more than almost anybody else in the league.

In the history of the NFL, for that matter. Only a few quarterbacks have ever been able to process information at the line of scrimmage like Rivers, a 44-year-old who kept shocking the Colts with his ability to see what was coming.

Wide receiver Alec Pierce got a taste in Rivers’ first start. When Pierce looked at Seattle’s defense, he saw the Seahawks in a pressure look the Colts had seen on tape, and he told Rivers the blitz was coming.

Rivers shrugged it off, told Pierce the Seahawks were bluffing.

The 44-year-old was right, just like he was right on Monday night, when San Francisco showed a look that offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter was sure indicated a blitz from the right, leaving him shocked when Rivers shuffled the protection to the left.

Rivers was right again. He’s almost always right, looking across the line at defenses like Keanu Reeves looking into the lines of the matrix.

“It’s really just that he’s probably seen it before, so it’s probably not even a matrix,” Colts running back Jonathan Taylor said. “I’ve seen this a couple years ago, and he’ll probably tell you the exact game, the drive, the actual down it was. So, he’s seen a lot of ball, so it’s not much you can throw at him at all.”

Taylor’s right. Rivers never forgets anything.

What makes him special is that he can access all of that information in a split second. When a coach talks about a quarterback going through his progressions, he’s often talking about a decision the quarterback makes after the snap.

Rivers goes through his progressions before he’s even finished calling the cadence.

That’s how a 44-year-old quarterback with diminished arm strength can complete 63% of his passes over three games, throwing four touchdowns and three interceptions to post an 80.2 quarterback rating, numbers that aren’t impressive for a 30-year-old starting quarterback but take on new meaning for a man who’s been calling plays at the high school level for five years.

“For Philip to come off the couch with a couple days of practice, go into Seattle and take them down to the wire, then come in here, and the past two weeks, I’ve thought he played well,” wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “That just says a lot about him, that he can still go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams at, what is he, 40-something? Phil’s up there.”

Rivers’ genius on the field is something only a handful of quarterbacks have ever been able to replicate.

The quarterback’s love of the game, and the way he approached these three starts in December, is something that can inspire anybody.

Rivers had plenty of reasons to rebuff the Colts, namely the tidal wave of public opinion that started flowing as soon as his decision to fly to Indianapolis became public.

But few people have ever loved anything as much as Rivers loves football, and as he’s said plenty of times since answering the Colts’ call, he wasn’t about to let the negative possibilities of what might happen affect his decision to play, even after Indianapolis was eliminated from the playoffs by Houston’s win on Saturday night.

“The message amongst all of us was like, ‘Hey, we get to play in an NFL football game. We signed up for all of them. They pay you for all of them, and you go out there and play,’” Rivers said. “The thought of meaningless games — which I know that gets thrown around, and it is in the sense of it doesn’t affect the postseason, there’s no impact on the postseason — but to say a game is meaningless is not in my DNA.”

That’s what draws people to sports, why so many keep playing pickup basketball or city-league softball long after their actual playing days or over, or why they start taking golf lessons to get that handicap down into single digits.

Win or lose, Rivers loves playing.

For the sake of playing itself, even though Sunday’s loss to Jacksonville might have been the last NFL game he starts.

“If I’d go back and say, ‘All right, now you know everything that is going to happen. What are you going to do?’ I’d do it all again,” Rivers said. “It’s been absolutely awesome. I mean, if it’s the last one, it’s the last one. … If it is, I got three bonus games that I never saw coming.”

Three games in December that should only make the NFL world appreciate Rivers more.

Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.

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Indianapolis, IN

Jaguars defense spotted the Colts 10 points, then shut down Old Man Rivers

Published

6 days ago

December 28, 2025

Press Room

Jaguars defense spotted the Colts 10 points, then shut down Old Man Rivers

Jarrian Jones, Antonio Johnson pulled down interceptions, Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen logged crucial late-game sacks

The Jaguars defense held the Colts to only one score after their first two possessions in a 23-17 victory.
Jacksonville’s defense limited Colts running back Jonathan Taylor to 70 yards, his lowest total against them at home.
Jarrian Jones and Antonio Johnson both secured interceptions, with Jones’ pick leading to the game-winning field goal.
The Jaguars defense held Colts receiver Alec Pierce without a catch for the first time in his career against them.

The Jacksonville Jaguars defense rewrote a few narratives on Dec. 28 in their 23-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The most important flip of the script happened in-game: After yielding 10 points and 112 yards on the Colts’ first two possessions, the Jaguars gave up only one more score (aided by a 55-yard kickoff return by Ashton Dulin in the third quarter) and 92 total yards the rest of the game, forcing four punts, two turnovers and a turnover on downs.

After gaining 48 yards on 11 carries on the Colts’ first two possessions, running back Jonathan Taylor had only 32 yards on 10 carries the rest of the game for 70 yards on 21 carries, the first time he’s failed to gain 100 or more yards against the Jaguars at home.

Phillip Rivers, the 44-year-old grandfather who returned to play this year after retiring in 2021, completed 7 of 11 passes for 52 yards on his first two turns with the ball, then went 10 of 19 for 95 yards.

Jarrian Jones and Antonio Johnson pulled down interceptions, with Jones’ second pick in two weeks leading to Cam Little’s tie-breaking field goal with 6:58 left. Johnson’s pick came in the end zone on a desperation heave by Riley Leonard, brought into the game for the final play from the Jaguars’48 because there are limits to a 44-year-old arm.

Jaguars finally got to Phillip Rivers

Because the Colts’ game plan was obvious ― get the ball out of Rivers’ hand as quickly as possible to keep him from being a sitting duck for the Jaguars pass rush ― it took some time for the Jaguars to get to him.

It finally happened in the second half. Travon Walker twisted out of a double team by two tight ends lined up on the same side, Tyler Warren and Mo Alie-Cox, and got to Rivers for a 6-yard loss in the third quarter on the final play of the third quarter, which led to a punt. Walker now has 3.5 sacks for the season.

Walker also figured in the second sack. Battling through another double-team against right guard Matt Goncalves and right tackle Jalen Travis, Walker forced Rivers to his left. Rivers ran into his own left tackle, Bernhard Raimann, who was in the process of being thrown backwards by Josh Hines-Allen.

Raimann knocked Rivers down, and Hines-Allen got credited for his team-high eighth sack of the season.

Walker had another tackle for a loss against Taylor, with the Jaguars getting four in the game. The secondary (without Jourdan Lewis for the rest of the season), was led by cornerback Montaric Brown with five tackles and two pass deflections. Six other Jaguar players had at least one pass defensed.

Safety Eric Murray had four tackles and deflected the ball that Jones intercepted.

Jaguars shackled Colts Big Three

The other narratives the Jaguars changed were long-term frustrations with three Colts players in particular, Rivers, Taylor and wide receiver Alec Pierce.

Rivers entered the game 8-2 versus the Jaguars as a starter, but two of the three losses have come when he was in a Colts’ uniform.

Taylor has been a monster against the Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium. In three previous starts at home, he ran for 546 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 6.4 yards per carry. His lowest production against the Jaguars was 116 yards in a 2021 game.

Pierce had 17 receptions for 350 yards and four touchdowns (20.6 per catch) in eight career games against the Jaguars and had 10 for 271 yards and two scores in his last three games against the Jags. But Pierce was blanked this time: no receptions on five targets.

The Jaguars also played stout on third down after the first two possessions, when the Colts converted two third downs and scored on Taylor’s third-and-goal run from the 2.

From then on, the Colts converted only two of 11 on third down and failed on a fourth-down attempt.

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