Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State right side hitter Ashley Peltier goes up for an attack during the Mustangs' 3-1 win over Augustana in Marshall on Tuesday night. The redshirt freshman had a career-high 12 kills in the match

MARSHALL – The Freshman duo of Leah Jones and Ashley Peltier set new career highs in digs and kills respectively to help the No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team outlast Augustana in four sets on Tuesday night.

Jones and Peltier, a true and redshirt freshman respectively, had each set their previous career bests against UMary on Saturday. Jones had 11 digs against the Marauders and doubled that number on Tuesday, finishing with 22 digs to trail only libero McKenzie Tolk’s 24.

“[Jones] has taken on a big load for us. She passes for us, she’s taken a lot of swings and she’s gotten better defensively,” SMSU head coach Tyler Boddy said. “She’s locked in back there and she knows the scouting report and she’s an intense kid. It’s been a pleasure to get to coach her.”

Peltier had nine kills in the match against UMary and had 12 against the Vikings to finish second on the team behind Saari Kuehl’s 18.

“I would just credit it all to the back row. They were able to pass the ball up to Alisa [Bengen] and Alisa was giving me good looks at the net. It was really all them,” Peltier said.

Bengen had 46 set assists and four kills on the night for SMSU.

Augustana held a 24-21 lead in the fourth set when the Mustangs started to heat up. Karli Arkell started the run with her sixth kill of the night and from there, the Mustang defense took over. Tolk served on each of the subsequent four points and made some key digs to keep the point alive before Augustana finally hit the ball past the back line to seal the Mustang win, 26-24. Those in attendance had a moment of suspense, waiting for confirmation as the officials reviewed the play before SMSU was officially awarded the point to trigger the celebration.

“Kenzie’s a good server for us and she did a nice job of that at the end of the game, serving aggressively and putting us in good positions defensively. Yeah, that’s a tough look when you’re down 21 to 24, but it was good for her,” Boddy said.

“She still had to serve tough. If she were to just lob the ball into play, we would have struggled, so she had enough guts to be able to serve aggressively and I thought we defended really tough.”

Aside from Tolk and Jones, Bengen also had 18 digs in the back line for SMSU while Emma VanHeel, Halle Jansen and Emily Strasser contributed five each.

“We’ve said this before, but I just think our back row kids have done a great job defensively for us and keeping us in matches,” Boddy said. “We’re trying to be defensive-minded minded and those guys take that to heart and make it hard for other teams to score against us.”

While the Vikings came into the match at 2-3 in conference matches, they had beaten No. 10 Minnesota Duluth on Friday and took that same energy into Marshall. Augustana led for the majority of the first game before SMSU took a 23-21 lead. Still, the Vikings didn’t give up; SMSU kept getting to match point before Augustana responded to extend the set. Still, SMSU took game one 29-27.

“Our kids are smart enough to understand that teams are going to carry play at us and we’ve got a number of teams in our league and they can clip teams if they’re not ready to go,” Boddy said. “I think our kids were ready to play these guys. They’re tough and they’re going to beat good teams and they’re going to continue to do that.”

The match was a back-and-forth affair throughout with 42 tie scores and 12 lead changes, but the Vikings still only stole one set, a 25-20 win in game two. A VanHeel kill tied the game at 16-16, but the Vikings carried play from there with a 4-1 run to break off a lead. They never let SMSU retake control.

Still, after a break in the locker room, the Mustangs came out ready to play in the third game. Augustana scored the first 2 points of the game and led 5-3 before SMSU rattled off 5 unanswered points to take the lead. The Mustangs led by as many as 11 points, 24-14, before Augustana got a pair of Window dressing points. Still, Peltier got a kill to finish the set with a win.

Behind Kuehl and Peltier, Vanheel and Leah Jones each had eight kills for SMSU on the night. VanHeel also had five total blocks while Karli Arkell had a pair of solo blocks.

“We have five kids that can swing at the ball,” Boddy said. “Some of it depends on who we’re playing or what the matchups are. Our middles have been good and then our outside and right sides have been good and they kind of take turns in that at times, but tonight it was Saari’s turn and she was really stinking good.”

After coming out of Tuesday’s four-set battle victorious, the Mustangs’ schedule doesn’t get any easier the rest of the week. They host No. 6 St. Cloud State on Friday at 6 p.m. and follow it up with a matchup against No. 10 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“I think we’re excited. I think we used this match to kind of feel out how we’re going to do and we’re going to keep working in practice and we’re going to work hard in practice and come out ready to fight on Friday and Saturday,” Peltier said.