INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – After winning its 15th-staright SCAC Men’s Tennis Championship, the Trinity Tigers booked their ticket to compete in the 44-team NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championships, which is set to begin with the first-, second- and third-round matchups this weekend, May 8-11. Interactive Bracket | NCAA Release
Trinity, which enters the NCAA Tournament as the 27th-ranked team in the ITA National Poll and fourth in the ITA West Regional Poll, will be competing in the national tournament for the 15th year in a row and the 31st time in program history. The Tigers won the NCAA Div. III Men’s Tennis national championship in 2000 and finished third in 2014.
Trinity, which is seeking its 45th NCAA Tournament victory, received a first-round bye and will open play on Friday at Claremont-M-S in Claremont, Calif., against Pomona-Pitzer (14-12). Pomona-Pitzer received one of 10 at-large (Pool-C) bids into the NCAA Tournament after falling to CMS in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) semifinal, 4-0, last Thursday. This will mark the third meeting between the two programs this year as the Sagehens won the first meeting in March, 5-2, but the Tigers secured a 5-2 win back in April. The meeting will also mark the second all-time between the two programs, with Trinity emerging victorious, 5-2, in the preliminary round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
On the other half of the bracket, host CMS (28-2) will take on East Texas Baptist University (14-4) on Friday with the winner advancing to face the winner of the Trinity/PP match on Saturday in the Regional Finals with a trip to the National Quarterfinals on the line.
The teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the first-, second- and third-rounds played at regional sites, Friday-Sunday, May 9-11, or Thursday-Saturday, May 8-10. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in Claremont, California will host the team championships finals, which will be held May 19-22 at Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California. Student-athletes selected to the individual championships will be announced Wednesday, May 7.
The championship provides for a 44-team tournament. Automatic qualification (AQ) is granted to 34 conference champions.
The remaining ten teams will be selected from true independents, schools from conferences that do not have an automatic bid for their champions, and teams in conferences with an automatic bid that did not win their conferences AQ (At-Large). The teams are geographically paired, whenever possible.
University of Chicago is the defending national champion, having defeated Claremont-M-S 5-4 to claim the team title.
