San Antonio - The Trinity Tiger women's tennis team opens competition Thursday at a seven-team regional in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the NCAA Division III Championship.

The University of Mary Washington will be the site of the regional event. Trinity (13-8) takes on Otterbein College (20-2) in the opening round. The winner plays in Friday's second round against the winner of host Mary Washington (16-7) and Penn State University-Behrend (12-9).

Also playing on Thursday will be Elizabethtown College (13-6) and the State University of New York-Geneseo (16-4). The winner of that matchup meets Johns Hopkins University (21-1) in the second round. The third round is slated for Saturday, with all starting times to be announced.

Regional winners of the 50-team national field advance to the final eight, to be played May 19-21 at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center at Claremont, California. The NCAA singles and doubles tournaments are also slated for Claremont from May 22-24. Individual participants will be announced Wednesday.

Trinity, led by first-year Head Coach Matthew Haugen, earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on April 27 by winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. The Tigers defeated Schreiner University 5-0 at the Butch Newman Tennis Center to capture their third straight conference title, and 18th overall.

The Tigers are making their third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship, and 18th overall. Trinity's women's and men's teams won the NCAA Championships in 2000. In addition, the Tiger women have been national runners-up on two occasions, in 1997 and 2001.