England twice beat hosts United States to top pool B on day one of the UL International Crown in Chicago.
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Gerina Piller and Stacy Lewis came very close to earning another victory for the U.S., but both women missed their birdie putts on the 18th, allowing Moriya Jutanugarn and Pornanong Phatlum to snatch a half.
English pair Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Holly Clyburn halved their match with Japan’s Ai Suzuki and Ayaka Watanabe, while Melissa Reid produced a gutsy performance after she was left without a partner when Charley Hull withdrew with a fever.
Pool B leader Taiwan joined Pool A pace-setter England with a 2-0 start by sweeping the Aussies while China split with favored South Korea in Pool A and Thailand had a win and a draw over Japan in Pool B.
“I just love playing in this kind of environment, especially when you are a bit of an underdog”, Hull said.
“We were saying along the way, we’re all pretty big football fans, and obviously we had the Euros recently and we made more points in one day than England did in the whole tournament, so can I just point that out”, a smiling Reid said.
The top two teams in each pool and the victor of a wild-card playoff between the third-place teams advance to singles matches on Sunday. “To get anywhere near the 18th was going to be a huge achievement, and I am just really, really pleased I gave the team a huge chance of even a point”.
Tseng and Lu then watched as Candie Kung and Ssu-Chia Cheng posted a 2-up win against Rebecca Artis and Minjee Lee.
South Korea’s Amy Yang birdied four of the first seven holes and she and Chun In-gee held on for a 1-up win over China’s Feng Shanshan and Lin Xiyu.
The 20-year-old Hull, who helped England to a sweep of the United States on Thursday, sought medical attention when she arrived at the course.
“They finished birdie-birdie-birdie. I finished birdie-par-birdie”, Reid said.
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Reid holed out with a wedge from 70 yards on the par-4 13th, squaring the match.
