diff --git a/lucene/common-build.xml b/lucene/common-build.xml
index f82533676a4..7577c50a1e9 100644
--- a/lucene/common-build.xml
+++ b/lucene/common-build.xml
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
   </path>
 
   <!-- default arguments to pass to JVM executing tests -->
-  <property name="args" value=""/>
+  <property name="args" value="-XX:TieredStopAtLevel=1"/>
 
   <property name="tests.seed" value="" />