NEWBERG, Ore. --- The NCAA Division III men's tennis championship draws have been announced, and the No. 29 George Fox Bruins have their opponent locked in for their third straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Fox will travel to St. Louis to play at the campus of Washington University to play in a bracket with the host and No. 3-ranked Bears, as well as Carthage, Covenant, Greenville, and Sewanee. 

This year's opening bracket will see the Bruins play in a pod of six teams, as opposed to pods of four in both 2021 and 2022. In 2021, Fox won their opening round games, taking down Oglethorpe and Carnegie Melton to advance to the Elite Eight.

"We're looking forward to competing against some solid teams and to see what we can do," Bruin head coach Jeff Cero said, "There's no doubt in my mind it's going to be tough physically and mentally, but these guys are up to the challenge."

The Bruins' first-round matchup will be against the Greenville Panthers, who took down the University of Wisconsin-Superior in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championship, 5-1. The Panthers made the 2022 NCAA Tournament, falling in the first round to Illinois Tech.

Fox enters the tournament as the fifth-ranked team in the West Region, with several regionally ranked players as well. Eli Mizerski and Vahag Pashayan are currently ranked No. 13 and No. 24 in the region, while the duo of Pashayan and Camden Camacho is ranked first in the region. 

Thursday's matchup between the Bruins and Panthers is the first time the two programs have met — in fact, the match will be the first time Fox has played a team from the UMAC in their recorded history.

The two teams will square off on Thursday at noon (2:00 pm CST). The winner of the match will face the No. 12 team in the country in Sewanee on Friday, once again at noon. If the Bruins win both on Saturday, they will play in the championship on Saturday.

Daily recaps will be available on the Bruins' website and both live stats and video will be linked to the team's schedule page.