San Antonio - The 15th-ranked Trinity men's tennis team opens competition Friday in the NCAA Division III Championship at Claremont, California.

Trinity meets 29th-ranked University of Texas-Tyler at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time in the second round at Claremont McKenna (CA) College. The fifth-ranked host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CA) Colleges takes on #31 University of California-Santa Cruz in the other second-round pairing.

The winner of Saturday's third-round match at 1:00 p.m. advances to the NCAA quarterfinals on May 21 at Claremont with the semifinals and finals slated for May 22-23. On Wednesday, the NCAA will announce the singles and doubles participants, with the individual events scheduled for May 24-26 at Claremont.

Led by ninth-year Head Coach Russell McMindes, Trinity will compete in its ninth consecutive NCAA Championship. The Tigers garnered their 25th berth in the NCAA postseason event by capturing the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. Trinity's conference title was the Tigers' ninth in a row and the 23rd men's tennis overall championship.

Last season, The Tigers opened the NCAA Championship with a 5-2 second-round victory over #14 Whitman (WA) College at Claremont. Trinity was eliminated by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a 5-0 third-round match.

The Tigers won the NCAA Championship in 2000 and finished third in 2014.