Oct. 12, 2001

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA -- The Riviera Women's All-American Championship, the first of three national collegiate tennis championships this 2001-02 season, opened play yesterday in Pacific Palisades, CA with Old Dominion sophomore Nataly Cahana (Qiriat Bialik, Israel) advancing to the second round of play.

The Lady Monarch, the fourth seed in this year's tournament, defeated Jewel Peterson of South California , 7-5, 7-6 (6). Cahana will face Erin Burdette of Stanford later this afternoon.

The top five seeds at the Riviera Women's All-American Championships, which dates back to 1983, are (in order): Bea Bielik of Wake Forest, Lauren Kalvaria of Stanford, Adria Engel of Wake Forest, Nataly Cahana of Old Dominion, and Sara Walker of UCLA.

This tournament, the Nov. 8-11 Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, and the year-end NCAA Championships are college tennis' three national championship events during the season for Division I men and women.

Bielik, a junior from Valley Stream,N.Y., is currently the nation's top-ranked player and is a two-time All-American. Kalvaria reached the final of last year's NCAA singles tournament. Cahana, Old Dominion's first tennis All-American, won the Cissie Learie Invitational held the University of Pennsylvania and was the runner-up at the East Coast Collegiate Championships earlier this month. The tournament will also feature one of the top freshmen in the country, Megan Bradley of UCLA (daughter of former professional baseball player Phil Bradley (Seattle)).

The tournaments can be followed on the ITA website, www.itatennis.com.