It all comes down to this.

After 24 matches that featured highs and lows throughout the regular season, Aberdeen Central will host Pierre in a Class AA SoDak 16 volleyball match tonight.

The winner advances to the state tournament and the loser puts the uniforms away for another season.

Tonight’s contest at 6 p.m. at Golden Eagles Arena features two squads eerily similar, and not just for their seed points (Pierre is ninth and Central is eighth).

The two teams know each other well, have had some real battles in recent years, and each beat the other in competitive matches this past season.

“We’ve had some really great matches with Pierre,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel.

The Golden Eagles won the first match against Pierre in four sets, before the Governors rallied for a five-set win late in the season. Bindenagel expects another hard-fought contest tonight.

“It’s just going to be a AA battle, 8 vs. 9,” Bindenagel said. “We just need to settle in for a long match and keep working on the things we focused on this week, just kind of our game plan and some strategy things, and just try and keep it simple.”

Central appeared to be in good shape against Pierre in the most recent match, grabbing the first two sets. However, things changed after that.

“Volleyball is a weird game. You think how can you win the first two sets and lose the next three? The momentum just swung,” Bindenagel said. “When we were out in Pierre, we really stopped serving aggressively at them and then you have to play lot harder defense.”

To further add to the intrigue this evening, both teams have struggled late in the season. The Governors have lost eight of their last 10 matches, while Central has dropped six of its last seven.

The Golden Eagles had a goal of hosting a SoDak 16 home match and they now have that opportunity.

“We have to play on Nov. 9. The way we’ve been playing in practice, what I’m seeing, it’s just really intense practices,” Bindenagel said. “If we do that (Thursday), things will be fine. We’ll have to give it our best and see what happens.”

Central has dropped its last couple of SoDak 16 matches.

“The last time we won this match was at home in 2020,” Bindenagel said. “We hosted Mitchell.”

Bindenagel said the team needs to stick to the basics, implement its game plan and go from there against the Governors.

“We’re just going to have to stay real aggressive. We’re going to have to get our block going. We need to pass well, just all the really basic keys,” Bindenagel said. “I feel like we know Pierre really well, so if we can get out there and just kind of execute our game plan a little bit.”

A trip to Rapid City and the state tournament next week awaits tonight’s winner.

“It’s just a great group of kids,” Bindenagel said, “and I hope we can get out to Rapid.”