There was a playoff atmosphere at Central Collegiate on Tuesday night and the volleyball lived up to the hype.

The Cyclones and Vanier Vikings went back-and-forth in a tight match-up in front of a packed house during Moose Jaw high school senior boys volleyball action.

After dropping the first set, Central came back to beat Vanier in four sets (25-27, 25-18, 26-24, 25-21).

“It was a really intense game, it was going back-and-forth the whole time and shout out to Vanier, we underestimated them a little bit and they came out and showed us that they’re a team to worry about,” said Central’s Jaxson Brownell after the win.

Neither team was willing to give an inch during the contest with every point being hard earned.

Vanier was unable to build off their opening set win however as Central found ways to finish off the next three sets when needed to secure the victory.

“It was back-and-forth all night and serving played a key role in this game,” said Vanier head coach Levi Broda. “When we were on, our serving was really nice and we could run our offence and when we were off, we were putting over too many free balls for them.”

The big crowd had Central and Vanier supporters in it with both fan bases being vocal throughout the game.

Both teams were able to feed off the atmosphere, which felt more like a city championship crowd than one for a game in early Oct.

“Playing in front of all your friends and the competition from the other schools just made for a great environment,” said Brownell.

“That’s two matches in a row where we’ve had really good crowd support and the boys really respond well to that,” added Broda. “This is all preparation for city finals, provincial runs and anytime you’re in an atmosphere like this it teaches the kids how to handle different types of stress, so it was good.”

The girls game was a thrilling contest as well with the Vanier Spirits pulling out a five-set win (17-25, 25-23, 25-13, 23-25, 15-13) over the Cyclones.

Over at Cornerstone, the Falcon boys won in three straight sets (25-22, 25-11, 25-21) over the Avonlea Eagles, while the Cornerstone girls fell in three sets (25-14, 25-20, 25-13) to the Caronport Cougars.

The senior volleyball league is back in action on Thursday with Peacock hosting Caronport and Avonlea, while Vanier welcomes in Cornerstone.