Canada's men's beach volleyball team will open its Pan Am Games schedule with a match against Nicaragua on July 14 while the women take on the Cayman Islands July 13.
The schedules for both teams were released Saturday morning following a beach volleyball challenge at the Ashbridges Bay courts that featured Canadian volleyball Olympic bronze medallist Mark Heese (Atlanta, 1996), Canadian Pan Am gold medallists Conrad Leinemann and Jody Holden (Winnipeg, 1999) and several Pan Am hopefuls.
Canadian athletes are currently competing on the FIVB World Tour to see who will represent Canada.
The Pan Am beach volleyball tournament will host 16 men's teams and 16 women's teams. Every team will play at least five matches.
"It's always good to see the schedule ahead of time, but major competitions bring out the best in all teams and we can't underestimate anyone," said Steve Anderson, Volleyball Canada beach national coach and four-time Olympic coach.
"Two things we can count on is that the atmosphere in Toronto this summer will be electric and the competition will be fierce."
Canada's men's team is in Group A along with Uruguay, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The women share Group A with Uruguay, Puerto Rico and the Caymam Islands.
The matches will take place at the purpose-built Beach Volleyball Centre inside Pan Am Park — which will host 15 different sport competitions — with the bronze- and gold-medal matches scheduled for Tues. July 21.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.