With 27 of the 32 first-round matches in the books, five have gone beyond 18 holes, including two by a pair of UCLA All-Americans who played for the victorious 2010 USA Curtis Cup Team. Stephanie Kono and Tiffany Lua both needed late rallies to post wins on Wednesday at Rhode Island C.C. Kono, playing in her 21st USGA championship, went 19 holes to oust Madeleine Sheils of Boise, Idaho, while Lua needed 20 holes to turn away Princeton University sophomore Kelly Shon of Port Washington, N.Y.
Kono set up a second-round match with 14-year-old co-medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who is the No. 1-ranked female amateur according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking supported by The R & A and USGA. Lua will face the championship's youngest remaining contestant, Mackenzie Brooke Henderson of Canada. It was Henderson's older sister, Brittany, who opened the door for a playoff late Tuesday for the final match-play spot. A bogey at her 36th hole forced a 5-for-1 playoff that Elyse Smidinger eventually won on the second hole and used to upset the other co-medalist, 17-year-old Jihee Kim of Korea.
The longest match of the day was won by 16-year-old Annie Park of Levittown, N.Y., who went 24 holes before eliminating the oldest match-play qualifier, 23-year-old Calle Nielson of Nashville, Tenn.
Stephanie Kim of Phoenix, Ariz., also went 19 holes to beat 2010 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup participant Pamela Pretswell of Scotland.
GB&I's third player in the draw, Sally Watson of Scotland and a senior at Stanford University, fell to reigning NCAA Division I champion Austin Ernst of Seneca, S.C., 1 down.
Defending champion Danielle Kang posted a 3-and-2 win over Talia Campbell of Dallas to set up a challenging second-round match against No. 4 seed Emma Talley of Princeton, Ky. The 17-year-old, who has committed to attend Alabama in the fall of 2012, posted a 5-and-3 win over Shu-Yin Liu of Chinese Taipei. The 23-year-old Liu, who attends Tulsa, had the words "Scooby Liu" inscribed on her golf bag.