TOLEDO, OHIO | This is the beauty of match play. Early on Sunday, it looked even bleaker for the United States team than it did on Saturday night when the Europeans took a record-breaking 5 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead. You could sense the gloom on the first tee early. The music was up and crowd was cheering but in the way you cheer for that Little League kid who has struck out nine times in a row.

By the afternoon, all that changed. The first tee turned electric. The stands shook with cheers and chants. Shirley Spork, the 94-year-old Founder of the LPGA, broke into dance to the Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling” and Ally Ewing grabbed the microphone and sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” all to raucous applause.

So, what precipitated the mood swing?

Simple: the U.S. mounted a rousing comeback late in the morning session, going from losing all four foursomes matches early in the front nine to capturing three of the four points and beginning the Sunday afternoon fourball session trailing by a point, 6 1/2 to 5 1/2.

For a while, the board was grim tableau for American fans, especially after Madelene Sagstrom rolled in a couple of 12-footers in foursomes to take an early 2-up lead through two holes on Austin Ernst and Danielle Kang. In their Labor Day mustard uniforms, the Europeans appeared ready to devour this Solheim Cup. More than few fans were asking the unthinkable: Could Europe win the cup on Sunday before the singles matches?

The answer was no, even if they swept both Sunday sessions. But that was the mood around Inverness Club. Between 8:30 and 9:30, the place was quiet as a whispered prayer.

Then, a switch flipped. Something in the Americans collective psyche told them that quiet losers were still losers. If they were going to fall in these matches, they were going to do so having given it everything they had.

The comeback began with the first group out. Kang and Ernst fell 2-down to Sagstrom and Georgia Hall, and the way Hall was putting, it looked like this one could end early. But the Americans won three out of four holes on the front nine and then birdied the 13th to square the match and the 14th to take a 1-up lead. Four straight pars from there secured the first full point for Team USA.

It was much needed. The duo of Mel Reid and Leona Maguire proved to be the best on the European side, taking down World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Ewing, the only player on the U.S. side to go undefeated in two matches on Saturday, by a whopping 5-and-4 margin. But that blue flag proved to be the only one of the session.

Lexi Thompson and her partner Brittany Altomare birdied 7, 8 and 10 to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up lead. When Thompson rolled in a 35-footer for birdie on 17 to win the match 2 and 1, you could have heard the roar in Cleveland.

Jennifer Kupcho sent an additional soundwave around the property when she holed a 15-footer for birdie on 17 just a few minutes later to capture the third U.S. point and turn this event from a blowout to a dogfight.

“It's all about the ending,” U.S. captain Pat Hurst said. “I saw a lot of red at the end, so that was what we wanted.

“You can't get any better than this. This is so much fun. It was the same thing yesterday where it could have gone either way. And that's what happened today. This is so much fun. This is what Solheim Cup is all about.”

Morning Comeback Brings New Energy to the Solheim Cup

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