GLADSTONE, N.J. — Unlike top seeds Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam, Virada Nirapathpongporn didn't survive the first round of the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship.

No one expected her to make it.

The former NCAA champion from Duke, however, did show why match play can be so thrilling by putting a scare into Sorenstam just days after she won her third U.S. Women's Open.

For the record, Sorenstam won 3 and 2 on the hilly and rain-soaked Hamilton Farm course. Nirapathpongporn, the lowest seed at No. 64, made the Swede sweat, though, rallying from 3-down at the turn to twice cut the margin to one.

In the end, Sorenstam got a little lucky. She benefited from a lift-clean-and-place ruling in making a 12-foot birdie on No. 15 to go 2-up. She closed out the match when Nirapathpongporn's seemingly great-looking second shot to No. 16 hit a greenside sprinkler head and rolled down the backside into an unplayable lie.

"Of course I felt I had a chance," Nirapathpongporn said. "I was playing with a little bit of the underdog mentality. It's something I learned. Even though you may be the underdog, if you have a good day. ..."