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Team England sweeps opening matches against Team USA

Charley Hull's heck of a golf day was worthy of a toast. No liquor, however, please.

"She wanted to put her electrolytes into her vodka today (before teeing off)," Melissa Reid, with some English humor, joked of her Day 1 playing partner in the LPGA's UL International Crown on Thursday at the Merit Club in Gurnee.

"I don't drink vodka because I'm too young to drink," noted a smiling Hull, who's 20.

OK, so cheers to England, anyway.

Led by the duos of Hull/Reid and Jodi Ewart Shadoff/Holly Clyburn, Team England swept its opening two matches on a scorching day in Lake County, capturing 2 & 1 decisions over Team USA's Stacy Lewis/Gerina Piller and Lexi Thompson/Cristie Kerr, respectively.

Chinese Taipei also went 2-0 in winning its pool, beating Team Australia 3 & 2 and 2 up.

The eight teams in the field resume four-ball play Friday morning, with England facing Japan (0-1-1) and Chinese Taipei teeing off against Korea (1-1).

Team USA plays twice against Thailand (1-0-1).

"I felt like we played good golf today," Lewis said after she and Piller fell victim to the red-hot Hull. "That's what this format is. (Sometimes) you play good golf and you're going to lose matches.

"We're going to go out there (Friday) and play good golf again, and hopefully we get on the good side of it. We're still in this thing."

When Lewis birdied the par-4 15th, it was the second time on the back nine that she squared the match, and Piller said she thought it gave the pair momentum. But Hull answered by sinking an eagle putt on the par-5 16th.

Hull's birdies on Nos. 9 and 12 had helped England rally from being one down through seven holes.

"I gave Charley a sore back carrying me around all day," said Reid, a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour.

Despite her youth, Hull is a two-time European Solheim Cup member and will represent Great Britain in the Rio Olympics.

"I mean, Charley made everything she looked at," Piller said. "She was 7 or 8 under on her own ball."

Ewart Shadoff/Clyburn secured their upset when Thompson missed a short putt on No. 17 that would have extended the match, after Clyburn birdied it.

"Huge (win)," Ewart Shadoff said. "I mean, to play against a team like Lexi and Cristie, we were definitely the underdogs. We played really well together."

The 21-year-old Thompson birdied the par-4 13th to square the USA's match, but Ewart Shadoff birdied the par-3 14th, and that held up.

"I left Lexi a couple of times as a partner, and you can't do that in four-ball if you want to win," said the veteran Kerr, who carded a 3 on the 470-yard par-5 eighth, which yielded 5 eagles. She was runner-up in the 2000 U.S. Open at the Merit Club.

"(I) just have to play better."

Chinese Taipei's 2-0 day saw Yani Tseng/Teresa Lu beat Team Australia's Karrie Webb/Su Oh 3 & 2 and Candie Kung/Ssu-Chia Cheng pull out a 2-up win over Minjee Lee/Rebecca Artis.

Webb, winner of the 2000 U.S. Open, missed an eagle chip on No. 16 and then conceded a short putt to end the match.

Webb's day included an eagle on the eighth and birdies on Nos. 9 and 12.

"Webby just knew what she was doing on the golf course, as normal," Oh said. "I think she knew how to play match play. I didn't have a good day out there, so she pretty much did a lot of the work."

The prairie-style course played to only 6,555 yards (par 72). Which was fine with the players.

"The course played great," said Tseng, who sank 4 birdie putts. "The greens are not as fast, but the fairways are running good. I think the way they set it up was awesome for the match play because there are some go-for-it shots and some of the par 5s you have to make eagle to win the match.

Team Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn, the world's No. 6 player, made 7 birdies. But she and Porani Chutichai settled for halving their match against Japan's Ai Suzuki and Ayaka Watanabe. Top-seeded Korea split with China.

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