Canada beats Dominican Republic to advance to men’s Pan American Cup semifinal

GATINEAU, Que. – Canada has reached the final four at the Pan American Cup.

Casey Schouten led the Canadian men’s volleyball team with 16 points en route to a four-set victory against the Dominican Republic on Friday to qualify for the tournament semifinals.

Set scores were 25-20, 16-25, 25-21 and 25-23.

“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,” said Canada coach Larry McKay.

“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.”

Ryan Sclater added 15 points for Canada while Brandon Koppers contributed 11.

Elvis Contreras and Jose Caceres each scored 15 for the Caribbean squad.

Canada — the 2016 bronze medallist — will play either Cuba or Argentina in the semifinals on Saturday.