An inexperienced Otago quintet faced a baptism of fire in the morning, going down 5-0 to North Harbour, but the team snatched a half against Southland in the afternoon.
There were two upsets in the morning as Southland beat Wellington 3-2 and Canterbury downed Taranaki 5-0.
North Harbour's top four of Tica Tse, Sai Ma, Bohyun Park and Ela Grimwood posted large winning margins against Otago giving North Harbour a lead of four early in the contest.
Only Otago No 5 Robyn Chambers showed some resistance after turning three light at the turn.
Chambers won the 16th but the match finished on the next green when she halved the penultimate hole with Harbour's Jullita Lam.
In the afternoon, Otago No 5 Robyn Chambers turned 3-up on Southland's Danielle Price.
She drove well, sank crucial 2m putts and won the par-3 16th hole to take the honours with two holes to spare.
Otago No 4 Rachel Lissaman turned 2-down in her afternoon round against Kerry Mariu and could not make up the deficit on the homeward nine.
At No 3, schoolgirl Abigael Crawford birdied the ninth to turn square with Olivia Frost, parred the next five holes and, with an impressive sand save, opened up a lead of two on the 16th hole to dormie 2-up.
She won the next hole to post her first interprovincial win by 3 and 1 with one hole to spare.
No 2 Sally Shaw had a tight battle with Angela Gerken and trailed by one at the turn.
But on the homeward nine, Gerken took control winning 4 and 3 after a solid homeward nine.
With two wins and two losses the final result was decided in the battle of the No 1 players with Otago's Jo Hicks-Beach 2-down to Robyn Pullar with two holes to play.
Hicks-Beach got up and down to win the 17th and keep the match alive while Pullar failed to get up and down on the final green giving Otago the crucial half.
The contest will not get any easier for Otago today when it plays Northland this morning and favourite Auckland this afternoon.
