The Arizona soccer team came out firing against No. 18 California on Friday.

Sophomore Jazmin Ponce directed a shot at the goal in the opening seconds of the game. It looked good, but amounted to nothing.

That has become a familiar theme for the Wildcats this season. After an impressive 90 minutes of regulation when Arizona looked like it could pull the upset, the Wildcats faltered in the opening seconds of overtime and fell to the Golden Bears 1-0.

These early-game shots, and misses, have become routine for Ponce and her teammates.

“I know I get to do it a lot and not one goes in,” Ponce said. “I’m just waiting for that moment where one goes in and they all start coming after that.”

For the majority of the game, the Wildcats were in control, outshooting the Golden Bears 10-8 on the night. But despite playing well for 90 minutes, Arizona just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. And in overtime, it only took one mistake to end the game.

“(Soccer) is a game where you can dominate the game and play well the entire game,” head coach Lisa Oyen said. “You have five seconds during the game where you make a mistake in the front half, you make a mistake in the back half, and that’s the entire game.”

The surprising part about the Wildcats’ latest near miss is that the game wasn’t supposed to be close.

Arizona is 1-11-2 on the season, and Cal is 10-3-2. Arizona is ranked 198th in the country, and Cal is 18th.

On Friday night, at least for regulation, the Wildcats confidently believed they were better.

“We were the better team,” Ponce said. “We haven’t gotten the results yet but we obviously kicked butt today we just couldn’t get our goals in.”

Despite the loss, after last week’s victory against Oregon and their performance against Cal, Arizona has increased its confidence level going forward.

Ponce, who led the team with four shots on the night, is ready for next week’s game at UCLA.

“Next game, it’s going down,” she said.