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  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Outside hitter Ella Harley (11) watches as setter Erica Selsor leaps for the ball during last night’s match vs. Oregon State.

By AJ Cadman

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA women’s volleyball team always expects a tough schedule to await them in the Pac-10 conference from such powerhouses as Southern California and Arizona.

But with the Bruins entering Thursday with a perfect 4-0 conference record alongside the crosstown rival Trojans, No. 5 UCLA (9-4 overall, 4-1 Pac-10) fell in a heartbreaking two-and-a-half hour match to unranked Oregon State (11-3, 3-1) 4-15, 15-10, 7-15, 15-13, 16-14 before a stunned crowd of 481 at Pauley Pavilion.

“We let down too much and didn’t put them away when we needed to,” said UCLA outside hitter Kristee Porter, who had 30 kills on the match. “There really should not have been a fifth game, but we didn’t play with the same intensity as we do with bigger matches.”

The Bruins watched a four-match winning streak fizzle at the hands of the Beavers. UCLA jumped on Oregon State in game one 7-0, sparked by excellent net play from middle blocker Elisabeth Bachman and capped with a service ace by defensive specialist Michelle Quon. Head coach Andy Banachowski’s squad looked focused early, proceeding to close out the game 15-4 and seemingly giving the Bruins a false sense of security.

“We played as good of a first game as we could out there,” Banachowski said. “We passed well, our offense was working and we did all right in the second game, until we kind of hit a wall.”

The Beavers rebounded from 11 errors and a -.059 hitting percentage in game one, rallying behind Angie Shirley’s play at the net. Her five kills and two blocks in the second game helped Oregon State rally back from a 10-5 deficit after a Porter service ace to win 15-10.

“We have played a lot of five-game matches this season,” Shirley said. “We felt if we kept sideout and moved our feet out there – as far as hustling and keeping disciplined with our gameplan – we knew we would keep the momentum on our side.”

UCLA came out of the intermission determined, displaying poise and execution. Ashley Bowles’ five kills in game three shifted the momentum back to the Bruins as a Lauren Fendrick kill closed out the game 15-7 and put the Beavers on their heels.

Game four provided the turning point for Oregon State. After falling behind 4-0, the Beavers knotted the score at 10-10 and seemed to find the chink in UCLA’s armor.

After Bruin miscommunications and 22 kills from Oregon State in game four – including eight from Gina Schmidt and seven from Joscelyn Hannefor – the Beavers captured that game 15-13 and set up the pivotal rally-scoring game five.

“We really only showed up for two games in the entire match,” Porter said. “So far this season, we have gotten ourselves up for matches against ranked teams and then have let down and not played with the same type of energy against teams we know we should beat.”

The seesaw battle of game five seemed to pit a war of who would cave in first. Both teams continued to struggle offensively and errors allowed the door to swing open for Oregon State.

The Beavers, who hit a meager .205 for the match and committed 39 errors to the Bruins’ 24, took the lead at 15-14 after trailing 12-9.

Porter’s number was called repeatedly in the fifth game, but UCLA was unable to hold onto the match. A Shirley crosscourt kill was followed by Schmidt’s team-leading 23rd kill, which turned out the lights and dropped the curtain on the Bruins.

“Maybe this will give us a wake up call,” Banachowski said. “That we need to play with more intensity and desire in every game.”