It was a back-and-forth match-up between the Central Cyclones and Cornerstone Falcons on Thursday night.

However, at the end of each set, Central found an extra gear that allowed them to pull out the victory each time, winning in three straight sets (25-23, 26-24, 25-21) over Cornerstone in high school senior boys volleyball league action.

“In practice, we’ve been working on putting them in difference scenarios and in different situations, ‘Okay, you’re down by this many and you have to fight back,’ so they just dug in tonight, which was nice to see,” said Central coach Cal Carter.

Carter is hoping that resilient effort is something that becomes an identity for this year’s Cyclones’ team.

“I would like for us to be ahead for most of the set, but that’s just not volleyball,” he said. “We’re going to get down in some of these close games and it’s a mental game just as much as it is physical.”

Cornerstone had the lead late in all three sets, but just couldn’t put together that final run to finish off the Cyclones.

Falcons coach Tammy Elliott said that’s something that they will have to work on moving forward.

“We just couldn’t pull it off and I’m not sure what’s going on there,” she said. “We just get scattered and scrambled and they lose it in the end, so we’ve got to bear down and stay focused.”

Elliott added that will come as the team gains more experience.

So far this season, she’s happy with the progress that the Falcons have shown.

“We’re not getting killed by any of these teams so far, so if we can really improve and get them settled down a little bit, we’ve got a fighting chance,” said Elliott.

Central has won five of the last seven league championships, but feature a younger lineup this season with just three grade 12s.

Carter expects them to grow as the season moves on.

“There’s always things that we can be working on, but for being such a young team and have some of our seniors step up in a leadership role has been great, so I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far and we’ve just got to keep progressing,” he said.

In other action on Thursday night, the Peacock Toilers won in three sets (26-24, 28-26, 25-9) over the Vanier Vikings.

The senior volleyball league returns to the court on Tuesday for four games as Vanier’s boys and girls head over to Central, while Cornerstone hosts Avonlea’s boys and Caronport’s girls.