Canadian men's volleyball team tops Venezuela in Pan Am Cup opener
Canada opened its Pan American Cup campaign with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-27, 25-15, 25-22) victory over Venezuela on Tuesday night in Gatineau, Que.
The young squad is looking to improve from their third-place finish at the 2016 Pan Am, which was Canada's first medal at the event in five years.
The host nation got off to a strong start, taking an early 21-11 lead in the first set and managed to hold off Venezuela for a 25-17 win. The next set was much more evenly played, allowing Venezuela to tie it up with a 27-25 win before Canada roared back in the third set to claim it 25-15.
Canada contained its South American rivals in the fourth set with a solid attack and block. Canada's height proved to be too much, as the team edged Venezuela 25-22 in the final set.
Casey Schouten and Ryan Sclater led Canada with 16 points each, while Emerson Rodriguez, Edson Valencia and José Verdi each had 11 for Venezuela.
"Obviously the first match of the tournament is always pretty difficult," captain Max Burt said. "I'm pretty happy with the result here. It's also our first game as a team this season, and that's a pretty good Venezuelan team. It's a very positive start for our group and some of our guys haven't played at this level before, so we're satisfied with the result tonight."
Canada continues round-robin play Wednesday against Argentina at 8 p.m. ET live on CBCSports.ca.
