THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFlorida's Aury Cruz goes for a kill against Pepperdine's Katie Wilkins during the Gators' regional semifinal victory.

A dramatic recovery could not negate the loss of one of USC's best players Friday night in the NCAA women's volleyball regional championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

As a result, fifth-seeded Arizona earned a 25-30, 30-24, 30-24, 28-30, 15-12 victory over the fourth-seeded Trojans to reach the national semifinals for the first time.

The Wildcats (25-4) will face No. 1 Long Beach State, which swept UCLA in another regional final at Long Beach.

April Ross, an all-conference selection and USC's leader in kills and digs, sprained her left ankle late in the second game and was lost for the match.

With her, Trojans coach Mick Haley believes that his team would have swept the Wildcats.

"I guarantee that they would've gone out, 3-0," Haley said. "Their best advantage was when April Ross went down."

Nevertheless, USC tied the match by winning the fourth game, and held a 12-9 lead in the fifth game.

"I don't think anyone looked at each other and thought, `This is something we can't overcome,' " said Jennifer Pahl, a Temecula Linfield graduate. "It was an opportunity to rise above our circumstances, and we knew we had to fight harder."

However, Arizona scored six consecutive points to end the fifth game and qualify for Thursday's semifinals at San Diego State's Cox Arena.

USC's Katie Olsovsky had 16 digs, 10 kills and three block assists to join Pahl on the all-tournament team. Keao Burdine led the Trojans with 16 kills, but USC hit only .199.

Long Beach State (32-0), playing before a home crowd of 4,078, rolled over No. 8 UCLA, 30-25, 30-28, 30-21.

Senior Tayyiba Hancef had 21 kills and 11 digs while hitting .444 for Long Beach State, and was named the regional MVP.

Kristee Porter had 14 kills and four blocks for UCLA, which finished its season 21-9. The Bruins had a .162 hitting percentage as Long Beach State came up with 62 digs in the match.