By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
UCLA senior outside hitter Kristee Porter was declared
ineligible to compete by the university before Friday’s match
against the No. 3 USC Trojans.
Concerned that an expense-sharing arrangement with a part-time
roommate in her off-campus apartment might be an inadvertent
acceptance of benefits, a violation of NCAA rules, Porter informed
head coach Andy Banachowski last Wednesday of her situation. The
university conducted an investigation and sent a report to the NCAA
Friday that included a request to restore Porter’s
eligibility.
Porter was in uniform for Friday night’s five-game loss,
but UCLA chose not to play the two-time All-American so that the
integrity of the match would not be compromised if the NCAA were to
find Porter guilty of a violation.
“We were hoping that we were going to be able to get a
ruling before the game and get everything straightened out, but it
didn’t work out that way,” Banachowski said. “So
in the best interests of the team, we held her out of the
game.”
UCLA associate athletic director Betsy Stephenson added the
following: “Nothing we have identified right now has anything
to do with anything related to amateurism or pay-for-play or
anything like that. It has to do with a friend providing her
something and whether the friend meets the NCAA definition of a
pre-existing relationship, and we don’t think it
does.”
Porter was unavailable for comment Friday night.
A statement released Friday by the UCLA Athletic Department
stated that the relationship between the student-athlete and friend
must pre-date the student-athlete’s status as a prospect.
Porter became acquainted with the friend after enrolling at
UCLA.
The friend is not a UCLA student, and the Athletic Department
does not believe that the friend is a sports agent involved with
the activities of an agent or a booster.
According to Stephenson, the situation between Porter and her
friend was commonplace among the student body as a whole and was
not unique to athletes.
Stephenson was unclear whether games Porter competed in earlier
in the season might have to be forfeited, but declared it unlikely
due to the fact the team learned of possible violations only last
Wednesday.
Also unclear to Stephenson was whether Porter’s status as
a UCLA basketball player and member of the track and field team
could be called into question.
UCLA women’s basketball head coach Kathy Olivier attended
Friday’s match.
“She’s young and she knows that she did something
wrong,” Olivier said. “And now, unfortunately, she has
to pay for it.”
The Athletic Department hopes to hear back on the matter from
the NCAA this week. The Bruins play next at Arizona State on
Thursday and face No. 7 Arizona Friday in Tucson.
“We’ll just wait and see what the NCAA has to
say,” Banachowski said. “Hopefully we’ll get
about with this quickly.”
With reports from Diamond Leung and Christina Teller, Daily
Bruin Senior Staff.