Nerves and misses left Americans Jeremy Jones (left) and Michael Coltrain glum onlookers Friday afternoon. Photo by Lawrence Lustig

Immonen neatly polished off the rack, then broke and ran out to move himself and partner Steve Davis to a 4-2 advantage. And when Strickland fouled off a Davis safe in the ensuing game, Immonen again cleaned up the mess to give Europe the 5-2 win.

In a repeat of Thursday's match-up, European captain Ralf Souquet and German countryman Thomas Engert rolled past the error-prone American pair of Jeremy
Jones and Michael Coltrain. The 25-year-old Coltrain, who has yet to successfully clear a rack, continued his struggles at the table. Blowing successive chances with wide-open racks, Coltrain at this point appears only even money to run out with ball-in-hand on the 9 ball.

"Coltrain certainly isn't playing well," understated Souquet, who buried the match-winning 9 after Coltrain missed his best chance at a clearance. "But we try not to think about that. The minute you start thinking about another player, all you've done is take your mind off your own game. We need to just play our game."

Team Europe will try to take its first lead of the event Friday night, when action shifts to singles play.