BERKELEY – California junior midfielder Emma Fletcher hopes to give Canada back-to-back Pan American gold medals after helping lead the team to their fifth consecutive semifinals after advancing out of the group stage of competition.

Canada takes on Colombia at 2:35 p.m. PT in Wednesday's semifinal with the winner set to meet either Brazil or Mexico in the gold medal match Saturday at 3:35 p.m. PT. The Canadians have advanced to the semifinals in every edition of the Pan American Games. In the inaugural women's tournament in 1999, Canada placed fourth before claiming silver in 2003. The 2007 squad took bronze before the team claimed its first gold medal in the 2011 edition.

Competing in a difficult group, Canada earned three points in group play with a 5-2 win over Ecuador on matchday one but picked up identical 2-0 losses to Brazil and Costa Rica. However, Fletcher's squad advanced to the semis due to goal differential with Costa Rica and Ecuador also finishing the group with three points.

Fletcher started all three games of the group stage, playing the full 90 against Ecuador and Costa Rica. She scored in the 79th minute against Ecuador, a blast that helped secure Canada's superior goal differential that was essential to advancing to the semifinals.

Last summer, Fletcher led Canada to an appearance in the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The Victoria, British Columbia native played in all four games, totaling 283 minutes throughout the tournament. She also previously had international experience as a member of the 2012 New Zealand FIFA U-17 World cup team.

Fletcher joined the Bears in January after two successful seasons at Louisiana State University where she set an LSU freshman record with 12 assists in 2013. As a sophomore in 2014, Fletcher registered one goal and two assists, including the gamewinner in the Tigers' victory at BYU.