After cruising through the first two games, Western New Mexico had to fight off a resilient Western State volleyball team to score a 30-19, 30-25, 29-31, 30-27 victory Tuesday night at Paul Wright Gym.

Western New Mexico is now 14-4 overall and 7-2 in conference play. Western State fell a game back at 10-6 overall and 5-3 in RMAC action.

After dropping the third game, Western New Mexico watched as Western State jumped out to an 8-2 lead in Game 4 after a Heather Adams kill and then led 19-12 on a Amy Thompson ace.

That's when the Mustangs began to battle back. A Jennifer Snowbarger (Oskaloosa, IA/Oskaloosa High School) kill closed the gap to 21-18. Snowbarger's next kill gave Western New Mexico its first lead of the game and they would close out the match.

Despite being down 2-0, the Mountaineers bounced back in Game 3. Battling from behind the whole game, Western tied the game at 28-28 on a kill by Tynet Calhoun and then took the lead on a WNMU error.

After the Mustangs tied the game at 29-29, Calhoun hammered home back-to-back kills to win the game 31-29.

For the match, Calhoun finished with a team-high 15 kills. Sophomore Erin Osleson added 12 and Adams had 10.

Senior Melinda Baumgartner had a match-high 19 digs and Melissa Tucker had 15 digs. Thompson had 43 assists.

Snowbarger led Western New Mexico with 16 kills.

The Mustangs play three more times this week, beginning with a Thursday night match at New Mexico Highlands University. The team then travels to Goodwell, OK where it will face both the Univ. of Texas-Permian Basin and Panhandle State Saturday afternoon.