The Irvine Valley men's soccer team let a 3-1 lead slip away and ended up tying Riverside, 4-4, in the Orange Empire Conference opener for both schools Tuesday afternoon on Riverside's Norco campus.

The Lasers took a 3-1 lead into halftime, and held a 4-2 advantage in the second half, but couldn't hold on and saw their record slip to 5-2-1 overall. Riverside's record moved to 3-2-1 overall.

Irvine Valley had won four straight contests before the tie on Tuesday.

"We missed a lot of chances early on to put the game out of reach," Irvine Valley Coach Martin McGrogan said. "We really should have put the game away. Riverside came back strong and we just had a real hard time defending."

Freshman midfielder Jack Plummer scored two goals and had one assist to lead the Lasers' offensive attack. Freshman forward Bruno Sad added a goal and had two assists. Freshman forward Corey Cordray had the team's other goal. Sophomore forward Erik Van Der Meulen also had an assist in the match.

Freshman goalie Mikhail Radchuk finished with just two saves in the contest for IVC.

Irvine Valley will try to bounce back on Friday when it hosts Fullerton in a conference match at 1 p.m. The Hornets lost to Santa Ana, 1-0, in another conference opening game on Tuesday.

Friday's game is part of a doubleheader with the Laser women's team. The IVC women play Cypress at 3 p.m.