Team USA maintains lead over Great Britain & Ireland heading into final day of Curtis Cup at Merion

After a disappointing morning in four-ball competition Saturday at the Curtis Cup, the team from Great Britain & Ireland came out in the afternoon with a renewed sense of purpose and threw the first punch in each of their three foursome matches against the United States at Merion Golf Club.

The visitors amassed leads of 4-up in the first and third matches and 2-up in the second, trying mightily to get in better position for Sunday’s final round of singles competition after falling behind 7-2 after Saturday morning.

However, errors by Team GB&I and heady play by Team USA turned the momentum around. Instead of coming up with a 3-0 sweep, the session was tied at 1½ points apiece, giving the home team an 8½-3½ lead through two days.

» READ MORE: U.S. team takes 5-1 lead over Great Britain in Curtis Cup at Merion

The United States will need to come up with just 1½ points in Sunday’s eight singles matches to retain the Cup. Team GB&I must come up with seven points to take the Cup home.

Eighteeen-year-old Amari Avery of Riverside, Calif., won both her matches Saturday to give her a 4-0 record and put her in position to become the fourth player to win five points in one Curtis Cup, joining Stacy Lewis, Kristen Gillman, and Debbie Massey.

The U.S. team was as resourceful as the GB&I team was unfortunate.

Emilia Migliaccio and Latanna Stone never led in the final four-ball match until the 18th, winning 1-up and giving the United States a 2-1 edge in the session. In the afternoon, the top American team of Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck lost the first two holes and never once drew even until winning 18 for a tie.

In defeating Emily Price and Amelia Williamson, the U.S. team of Avery and Rachel Kuehn were unable to grab the lead until hole 15. Price and Williamson had a chance to tie the match on 18, but Avery won the hole for a 2-up victory.

The Great Britain & Ireland team got its only win of the afternoon in the last match with Hannah Darling and Annabell Fuller defeating Stone and Jensen Castle, 2 and 1, to take a ray of hope into the final day.

“Obviously the fact that our first win came this late was annoying, but we got it done,” Darling said. “To almost have the momentum going in our favor going into tomorrow, that’s huge, and hopefully it can pump up our team a little bit.”

The U.S. Golf Association rescheduled Sunday’s singles matches to begin at 7:30 a.m. because of a forecast for severe weather in the afternoon.