The 2026 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Tournament field and bracket were released on Monday and the Foresters will take on Ohio Northern University in the opening round Friday at 10:00 a.m. (ET). The match will be played at Case Western Reserve University.

The Foresters are 16-6 this season and listed 35th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings. They qualified for the national event by defeating Cornell College 4-0 and Grinnell College 4-3 in dramatic fashion in the Midwest Conference Tournament final on April 24. Lake Forest is making the first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in program history.

Ohio Northern is 13-8 this year and won the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament with 4-0 victories over Mount Union University and Otterbein College over the weekend. The Polar Bears are 72nd in the ITA rankings and are in the national tournament field for the fifth consecutive season.

The only previous meeting between the two teams was an 8-1 Ohio Northern victory during Spring Break in 2022.

Case Western Reserve (26-8) will host the winner of Friday's match in the second round on Saturday.

Friday's other opening round match features Whitman College (17-5, 14-0 NWC) and #57 Asbury University (13-5, 6-0 CCS) with the winner taking on #13 University of Mary Washington (20-6) on Saturday. Victorious teams in round two will face off in the third round on Saturday.

There are 44 teams in the 2026 NCAA Division III Tournament and the eight who survive the opening weekend will gather for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship match May 19-22 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.