  We analyze the pseudo-critical behavior of three-flavor QCD using highly
improved staggered quarks (HISQ) on lattices with temporal extent $N_\tau =8$
and for quark masses corresponding to a pseudoscalar Goldstone mass in the
range $80 ~ {\rm MeV} ~ \lesssim ~ m_\pi ~ \lesssim ~ 140 ~ {\rm MeV}$. Our
findings are consistent with the occurrence of a second order chiral phase
transition at vanishing values of the quark masses. The chiral phase transition
temperature at this finite value of the lattice spacing is determined to be
$T_c = 98_{-6}^{+3}~{\rm MeV}$. A comparison with a corresponding analysis
performed in (2+1)-flavor QCD suggests that the continuum limit extrapolated
chiral phase transition temperature in 3-flavor QCD will turn out to be below
$90 ~ {\rm MeV}$.
