diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
index d4d1f64bcda..bd90b5eb0a0 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
@@ -228,17 +228,30 @@ private Collector buildAndRunCollectorChain(
     if (cmd.getSegmentTerminateEarly()) {
       final Sort cmdSort = cmd.getSort();
       final int cmdLen = cmd.getLen();
+
+      final Sort indexOrMergeSort;
       final Sort mergeSort = core.getSolrCoreState().getMergePolicySort();
+      final Sort indexSort;
+      {
+        final String indexSortStr = core.getSolrConfig().indexConfig.indexSort;
+        if (indexSortStr != null) {
+          indexSort = SortSpecParsing.parseSortSpec(indexSortStr, core.getLatestSchema()).getSort();
+          indexOrMergeSort = indexSort;
+        } else {
+          indexSort = null;
+          indexOrMergeSort = mergeSort;
+        }
+      }
 
       if (cmdSort == null
           || cmdLen <= 0
-          || mergeSort == null
-          || !EarlyTerminatingSortingCollector.canEarlyTerminate(cmdSort, mergeSort)) {
+          || indexOrMergeSort == null
+          || !EarlyTerminatingSortingCollector.canEarlyTerminate(cmdSort, indexOrMergeSort)) {
         log.warn(
-            "unsupported combination: segmentTerminateEarly=true cmdSort={} cmdLen={} mergeSort={}",
+            "unsupported combination: segmentTerminateEarly=true cmdSort={} cmdLen={} indexOrMergeSort={}",
             cmdSort,
             cmdLen,
-            mergeSort);
+            indexOrMergeSort);
       } else {
         collector =
             earlyTerminatingSortingCollector =
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfig.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfig.java
index 94c5e63aa37..cf4c8520f1c 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfig.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfig.java
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@
 import org.apache.solr.index.MergePolicyFactoryArgs;
 import org.apache.solr.index.SortingMergePolicy;
 import org.apache.solr.schema.IndexSchema;
+import org.apache.solr.search.SortSpec;
+import org.apache.solr.search.SortSpecParsing;
 import org.apache.solr.util.SolrPluginUtils;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -85,6 +87,7 @@ public class SolrIndexConfig implements MapSerializable {
 
   public final int writeLockTimeout;
   public final String lockType;
+  public final String indexSort;
   public final PluginInfo mergePolicyFactoryInfo;
   public final PluginInfo mergeSchedulerInfo;
   public final PluginInfo metricsInfo;
@@ -103,6 +106,7 @@ private SolrIndexConfig() {
     maxCommitMergeWaitMillis = -1;
     writeLockTimeout = -1;
     lockType = DirectoryFactory.LOCK_TYPE_NATIVE;
+    indexSort = null;
     mergePolicyFactoryInfo = null;
     mergeSchedulerInfo = null;
     mergedSegmentWarmerInfo = null;
@@ -158,6 +162,7 @@ public SolrIndexConfig(ConfigNode cfg, SolrIndexConfig def) {
 
     writeLockTimeout = get("writeLockTimeout").intVal(def.writeLockTimeout);
     lockType = get("lockType").txt(def.lockType);
+    indexSort = get("indexSort").txt(def.indexSort);
 
     metricsInfo = getPluginInfo(get("metrics"), def.metricsInfo);
     mergeSchedulerInfo = getPluginInfo(get("mergeScheduler"), def.mergeSchedulerInfo);
@@ -214,6 +219,9 @@ public Map<String, Object> toMap(Map<String, Object> map) {
     if (metricsInfo != null) {
       map.put("metrics", metricsInfo);
     }
+    if (indexSort != null) {
+      map.put("indexSort", indexSort);
+    }
     if (mergePolicyFactoryInfo != null) {
       map.put("mergePolicyFactory", mergePolicyFactoryInfo);
     }
@@ -265,9 +273,20 @@ public IndexWriterConfig toIndexWriterConfig(SolrCore core) throws IOException {
     iwc.setMergeScheduler(mergeScheduler);
     iwc.setInfoStream(infoStream);
 
+    if (indexSort != null) {
+      SortSpec indexSortSpec = SortSpecParsing.parseSortSpec(indexSort, schema);
+      iwc.setIndexSort(indexSortSpec.getSort());
+    }
+
     if (mergePolicy instanceof SortingMergePolicy) {
-      Sort indexSort = ((SortingMergePolicy) mergePolicy).getSort();
-      iwc.setIndexSort(indexSort);
+      Sort mergeSort = ((SortingMergePolicy) mergePolicy).getSort();
+      Sort indexSort = iwc.getIndexSort();
+      if (indexSort != null && !indexSort.equals(mergeSort)) {
+        log.warn(
+            "indexSort={} differs from mergePolicySort={} (using indexSort)", indexSort, mergeSort);
+      } else {
+        iwc.setIndexSort(mergeSort);
+      }
     }
 
     iwc.setUseCompoundFile(useCompoundFile);
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-indexSort.xml b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-indexSort.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0c7c5027b7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-indexSort.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" ?>
+
+<!--
+ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ limitations under the License.
+-->
+
+<config>
+  <luceneMatchVersion>${tests.luceneMatchVersion:LATEST}</luceneMatchVersion>
+  <directoryFactory name="DirectoryFactory" class="${solr.directoryFactory:solr.RAMDirectoryFactory}"/>
+  <schemaFactory class="ClassicIndexSchemaFactory"/>
+
+  <indexConfig>
+    <lockType>${solr.tests.lockType:single}</lockType>
+    <indexSort>timestamp_i_dvo desc</indexSort>
+  </indexConfig>
+
+  <requestHandler name="/select" class="solr.SearchHandler" />
+
+  <updateHandler class="solr.DirectUpdateHandler2">
+    <updateLog>
+      <str name="dir">${solr.ulog.dir:}</str>
+    </updateLog>
+
+    <autoCommit>
+      <maxTime>${solr.autoCommit.maxTime:-1}</maxTime>
+      <openSearcher>false</openSearcher>
+    </autoCommit>
+
+    <autoSoftCommit>
+      <maxTime>${solr.autoSoftCommit.maxTime:-1}</maxTime>
+    </autoSoftCommit>
+  </updateHandler>
+  <initParams path="/select">
+    <lst name="defaults">
+      <str name="df">text</str>
+    </lst>
+  </initParams>
+
+</config>
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml
index 5920348551a..092747de1b0 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml
+++ b/solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
       <str name="sort">${mergePolicySort:timestamp_i_dvo desc}</str>
     </mergePolicyFactory>
     <lockType>${solr.tests.lockType:single}</lockType>
+    <indexSort>timestamp_i_dvo desc</indexSort>
   </indexConfig>
 
   <requestHandler name="/select" class="solr.SearchHandler" />
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestSegmentSorting.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestSegmentSorting.java
index 5a4b24c897a..4459d34b67a 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestSegmentSorting.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestSegmentSorting.java
@@ -71,9 +71,13 @@ public void createCollection() throws Exception {
     collectionName = testName.getMethodName();
     final CloudSolrClient cloudSolrClient = cluster.getSolrClient();
 
+    final String solrConfigFileName =
+        random().nextBoolean()
+            ? "solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml"
+            : "solrconfig-indexSort.xml";
+
     final Map<String, String> collectionProperties = new HashMap<>();
-    collectionProperties.put(
-        CoreDescriptor.CORE_CONFIG, "solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml");
+    collectionProperties.put(CoreDescriptor.CORE_CONFIG, solrConfigFileName);
 
     CollectionAdminRequest.Create cmd =
         CollectionAdminRequest.createCollection(
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfigTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfigTest.java
index 2a59bbb8312..b6a227da467 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfigTest.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/update/SolrIndexConfigTest.java
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ public class SolrIndexConfigTest extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
       "solrconfig-concurrentmergescheduler.xml";
   private static final String solrConfigFileNameSortingMergePolicyFactory =
       "solrconfig-sortingmergepolicyfactory.xml";
+  private static final String solrConfigFileNameIndexSort = "solrconfig-indexSort.xml";
   private static final String schemaFileName = "schema.xml";
 
   private static boolean compoundMergePolicySort = false;
@@ -116,6 +117,8 @@ public void testTieredMPSolrIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
     assertEquals("ms.maxMergeCount", 987, ms.getMaxMergeCount());
     assertEquals("ms.maxThreadCount", 42, ms.getMaxThreadCount());
     assertTrue("ms.isAutoIOThrottle", ms.getAutoIOThrottle());
+
+    assertNull("indexSort", iwc.getIndexSort());
   }
 
   @Test
@@ -137,6 +140,8 @@ public void testConcurrentMergeSchedularSolrIndexConfigCreation() throws Excepti
     assertEquals("ms.maxMergeCount", 987, ms.getMaxMergeCount());
     assertEquals("ms.maxThreadCount", 42, ms.getMaxThreadCount());
     assertFalse("ms.isAutoIOThrottle", ms.getAutoIOThrottle());
+
+    assertNull("indexSort", iwc.getIndexSort());
   }
 
   public void testSortingMPSolrIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
@@ -167,6 +172,25 @@ public void testSortingMPSolrIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
     }
     final Sort actual = sortingMergePolicy.getSort();
     assertEquals("SortingMergePolicy.getSort", expected, actual);
+    assertEquals("indexSort", expected, iwc.getIndexSort());
+  }
+
+  public void testIndexSortSolrIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
+    final String expectedFieldName = "timestamp_i_dvo";
+    final SortField.Type expectedFieldType = SortField.Type.INT;
+    final boolean expectedFieldSortDescending = true;
+
+    SolrConfig solrConfig = new SolrConfig(instanceDir, solrConfigFileNameIndexSort);
+    SolrIndexConfig solrIndexConfig = new SolrIndexConfig(solrConfig, null);
+    assertNotNull(solrIndexConfig);
+    IndexSchema indexSchema = IndexSchemaFactory.buildIndexSchema(schemaFileName, solrConfig);
+
+    h.getCore().setLatestSchema(indexSchema);
+    IndexWriterConfig iwc = solrIndexConfig.toIndexWriterConfig(h.getCore());
+
+    final Sort expected =
+        new Sort(new SortField(expectedFieldName, expectedFieldType, expectedFieldSortDescending));
+    assertEquals("indexSort", expected, iwc.getIndexSort());
   }
 
   public void testMergedSegmentWarmerIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
@@ -182,6 +206,8 @@ public void testMergedSegmentWarmerIndexConfigCreation() throws Exception {
     h.getCore().setLatestSchema(indexSchema);
     IndexWriterConfig iwc = solrIndexConfig.toIndexWriterConfig(h.getCore());
     assertEquals(SimpleMergedSegmentWarmer.class, iwc.getMergedSegmentWarmer().getClass());
+
+    assertNull("indexSort", iwc.getIndexSort());
   }
 
   public void testToMap() throws Exception {