San Antonio - The Trinity University Tigers volleyball team begins competition in its 18th consecutive NCAA Division III Championship postseason tournament on Thursday afternoon.

Trinity (27-11), which received an at-large bid, will play Randolph-Macon (Va.) (28-6) in the NCAA South Region Tournament at 2 p.m. Thursday in Georgetown, Texas. The Tigers are seeded fifth and Randolph-Macon is No. 4. Southwestern University, the No. 2 seed, is the host institution of the seven-team regional, to be held at the Robertson Center. Southwestern (33-3) will play No. 7 University of Dallas (20-19) in the opening round.

The Trinity/Randolph-Macon winner will advance to Friday's regional semifinals, and a match with top seed and defending national champion Emory (34-4) at 7 p.m. Saturday's championship match, also at 7 p.m., will determine which team moves on to the NCAA quarterfinals, semifinals and final, Nov. 19-21, at University Heights, Ohio. Sixty-two teams are competing nationwide.

The Tigers, led by 25th-year head coach Julie Jenkins, finished third in last week's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament in Atlanta, won by Southwestern. Trinity had previously won 11 straight SCAC titles. Last year, Trinity hosted the NCAA regional, and advanced to the semifinals.

The other South Region first-round pairing is No. 3 Texas-Dallas (25-0) and No. 6 Maryville (Tenn.) (29-5).