Prevent AngularJS state/route change when closing Ionic modal using back button

I have a fairly standard AngularJS app running in Ionic using Ionic's tabs. The state controller looks like you'd expect:

$stateProvider.state('login', {
    url: '/login',
    templateUrl: 'templates/login.html',
    controller: 'LoginCtrl'
})

// abstract state for the tabs directive
.state('tab', {
    url: '/tab',
    abstract: true,
    templateUrl: 'templates/tabs.html'
})

.state('tab.selector', {
    url: '/selector',
    views: {
        'tab-selector': {
            templateUrl: 'templates/tab-selector.html',
            controller: 'SelectorCtrl'
        }
    }
})
...

I then call a modal to play video files using boilerplate modal code:

$ionicModal.fromTemplateUrl('play-modal.html', {
    scope: $scope,
    animation: 'slide-in-up'
}).then(function (modal) {
    $scope.modal = modal;
});

This all works well. The problem comes when I use Android's back button. The modal closes nicely, but the state also backs up a level. This is what I'd like to prevent. I'm hoping that there's something less heavy-handed that preventDefault() available through Ionic.