Victory slipped from the grasp of the Trinity Western Spartans men鈥檚 soccer team.

Hosting the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday night at Rogers Field, the Spartans led for much of the match against the country鈥檚 second-ranked squad.

But UBC tied the game on a Spartans own-goal in the 79th minute.

鈥淥verall we defended quite well, considering that we (were) thin on numbers this week, we did well,鈥� said coach Pat Rohla.

鈥淏ut (we are) disappointed as were 10 minutes away from getting a win.鈥�

Spencer Schmidt got the Spartans on the board midway through the first half when he headed a beautiful deep cross from James Farenhorst past UBC keeper Matt Robinson and into the net.

The lead stood for much of the game before UBC鈥檚 Gregory Smith broke down the side and his hard shot into the box deflected off a Spartan defender and past keeper Andrew Fink.

While the point was nice for the Spartans (1-1-1), Rohla felt they let the victory slip away.

鈥淚n the first half, our issue was that we were unable to connect passes and were our own worst enemies,鈥� he said.

鈥淥ur turnovers are killing us right now.鈥�

Trinity Western managed just the one shot on goal, while UBC had two.

The team is in Edmonton on Saturday and Saskatoon on Sunday.