Pride struggled to find composure against a tall and physical Bayside Stingers, who lured Pride into flashy risque netball.

And when they were finished, a despondent Pride was left seven goals short and facing a long trip home from the State Netball and Hockey Centre last night.

The Stingers, keen to cement a top-four spot, pushed the limits in the Netball Victoria state league division one clash.

Ballarat coach Jo Dash said she flatly lost confidence in its attack.

"(Stingers) pushed things to the line with borderline breaking, things like that, and our players really needed maturity about that - not to get caught up in mind games," Dash said.

"We needed to maintain our own game and instead were just reacting quite a bit."

Pride had its chances early to blast the Stingers back but wasted balls and a lack of accountability in attack kept the scores tight to half-time.

Uncharacteristic errors added up and proved costly.

Leads were predictable and often wide, the centre-court lacked drive and pressure was lumped on an already hesitant attacking line.

Pride circle defenders Simone Segrave and Kate McLeod carried the bulk of Pride's work load early but even they were under siege when the Stingers surged ahead in the third quarter.

Segrave's intercepts inspired Pride to a late fightback, winning the fourth quarter by five goals with sharper passing and a hearty endeavour.

But the damage was done.

Pride's four-game winning-streak came to an end, though its second spot remains intact, and the loss has dampened celebrations from this week's acceptance into the incoming Victorian Netball League.