diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadSpans.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadSpans.java
index 9e9228b16ae..2c0204d5f9f 100644
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadSpans.java
+++ b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadSpans.java
@@ -435,6 +435,7 @@ public class TestPayloadSpans extends LuceneTestCase {
       writer.addDocument(doc);
     }
 
+    writer.forceMerge(1);
     closeIndexReader = writer.getReader();
     writer.close();