Volleyball Canada – Gatineau, Canada, July 28.- Canada advanced to the 12th Men’s Pan American Cup semifinal after defeating the Dominican Republic 3-1 (25-20, 16-25, 25-21, 25-23) at Gatineau’s Robert Guertin Arena.

In front of the home crowd, Canada started out well and built a narrow lead over their Caribbean opponents 16-14. Dominican Republic managed to tie at 18, but Brandon Koppers and captain Max Burt were two towers blocking their rivals. Setter Byron Keturakis made a difference from the service line as Canada took the opening set 25-20.

The Dominicans bounced back early in the second period, taking advantage of their rivals’ hitting and serving errors, to move 8-4 in front. The Dominicans kept the pressure and Elvis Contreras produced two solid spikes to increase the lead 16-7. Canada had some good moments but could not stop their rivals who equalled the match with a 25-16.

The host team regrouped and showed a more aggressive and efficient play to lead 8-4 at the first technical timeout in the third set. Casey Schouten led the Canucks with a strong hitting and serve. The Dominican Republic reacted and Elvis Contrera continued to find room in the Canadian defense to close the gap to 14-16.

With solid block by Schouten, Demyanenko and Max Burt, combined with a hard serve by setter Byron Keturakis, Canada regained momentum and finished the set 25-21 thanks to Danny Demyanenko’s attack from the middle.

The fourth set started more erratic with each team making three mistakes from the service line. Jose Caceres, standing 2.10m tall, kept the pressure from the Dominicans with strong spikes, but setter Keturakis found spaces in their opponents’ defense to lead 8-7.  Their block performed and Ryan Sclater hit hard from the left angle to put the country of the Maple Leaf 16-12 in front. The Caribbean side never gave up and moved within one point (23-24), but Ryan Sclater sealed the victory with another lethal spike from the left angle.

Casey Schouten led the Canadian production with 16 points, one more than Ryan Sclater. Brandon Koppers also contributed with 11. Elvis Contreras and Jose Caceres each scored 15 for the Caribbean squad.

“We came out really good in the first set – we put a lot of service pressure on them, but we let them back in the second and they get a lot of confidence when you start giving them free points like that – they’re scrappy and they have got a lot of physicality,” explained Max Burt, Canada’s team captain. “But we were able to settle it down in the third set and take control of the match again, which is really nice.”

Canada, the bronze medalist at last’s year edition, will play in the semifinals on Saturday at 6 pm EDT. The Dominican Republic will play against the loser of the Puerto Rico-United States match for a place between fifth and eighth.

Larry McKay, Canada’s head coach, said of today’s effort: “It’s a developmental team, and what happened in the second set is part of these young guys trying to be international players and fortunately they found their good game again and I’m pleased for them.  The Dominican team has one of the best coaches (Orlando Samuel) in the world, and today they just weren’t as good, and our guys had three good sets. We’ve played all our guys through this tournament because I want to showcase everybody; and in this match I tried to stay with one group and not make too many switches for consistency. We haven’t played a lot as a team, so that’s why this tournament is important.” 

Advance tickets are available at: https://goo.gl/J77jQ1

NOTE: Match starting times for the Sunday (July 30) finals were moved up to 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm EASTERN. 

• Results and stats will be available here: https://goo.gl/rWfmD2
• Web casts at www.cbcsports.ca

  Preliminary Round Results

  July 25
  14:00    Argentina v Puerto Rico 3-0
  16:00    Cuba v Dominican Republic 3-1
  18:00    United States v Mexico 3-1 
  20:00    Canada v Venezuela 3-1 
   
  July 26
  14:00    Dominican Republic v United States 3-0
  16:00    Argentina v Venezuela 3-0
  18:00    Cuba v Mexico 3-0 
  20:00    Canada v Puerto Rico 3-0 
   
  July 27
  14:00    Mexico v Dominican Republic 1-3
  16:00    Puerto Rico v Venezuela 3-2
  18:00    United States v Cuba 2-3
  20:00    Canada v Argentina 0-3

Athletes
Byron Keturakis, Surrey, BC (setter)
Gabriel Chancy, Montreal, QC (setter)
Irvan Brar, Surrey, BC (left side)
Brandon Koppers, Georgetown, ON (left side)
Blake Scheerhoorn, Belleville, ON (left side)
Ryan Sclater, Port Coquitlam, BC (left side)
Robert Wojcik, Oshawa, ON (right side)
Casey Schouten, Winnipeg, MB (right side)
Tyler Epp, Saskatoon, SK (middle)
Jordan McConkey, Stratford, ON (middle)
Danny Demyanenko, Toronto, ON (middle)
Max Burt, Gander, NL (middle)
Bryan Duquette, St. Thomas, ON (libero)
Olivier Riopel, Gatineau, QC (libero)
 
Staff
Larry McKay, Head coach
Jason Haldane, Assistant coach
Phil Dixon, Assistant coach
Melissa Healy, Therapist
Julien Boucher, Team manager
Murat Haktanir, Statistician 

Report: Javier Clavelo; Photo: NORCECA
 

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
E-mail: jskender@volleyball.ca
Phone: 613.794.7676