It didn’t feel like a loss, at least in the usual sense.

The Hawaii women’s soccer team fell to California 3-0 in the finale of the Ohana Hotels No Ka Oi tournament at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium … and gained plenty of confidence heading into a difficult three-game road trip under their new head coach.

UH (0-3) is still in search of its first victory for Michele Nagamine, but there was no need for soul searching and personal reflection at the end of this one.

The Golden Bears (3-1), who are expected to contend for the Pac-12 title, led only 1-0 at halftime and needed goals in the 78th and 83rd minutes to put away the Rainbow Wahine and claim the tourney title.

Nagamine, who blasted her team the night before for its effort in a 3-2 loss to North Dakota State, was up and applauding on the sidelines for most of Sunday’s match.

"I think this puts a lot of things in perspective. I think it shows that we can be competitive on any given day, which is what our team needs to see," Nagamine said. "We’re a young team, we don’t have a lot of experience … I told the team, remember, ‘This is a marathon, not a sprint.’ "

Although Cal outshot UH 17-3, the Wahine pressured deep into Golden Bears territory for most of the match and tested the visitors’ last line of defense often.

It was a different story last year, when California eviscerated UH 8-1 in Berkeley, Calif. The Golden Bears returned seven starters from that team, but couldn’t dominate in the same fashion.

"I thought Hawaii was fantastic and deserved to be in the game," Cal coach Neil McGuire said. "Last year we were pretty fortunate, it seemed like every shot we took went in. Things like that can break a team’s spirit. Tonight, that wasn’t the case. There was no way we were going to break Hawaii’s spirit."

Nagamine continues to hunt for effective combinations of players. At one point, she had five freshmen in the game, led by speedy midfielder Alexis Colacchio, one of two UH players to make the all-tournament team.

UH’s errors that swung the game were failures to clear balls that ricocheted around the penalty box, leading to goals by Mekenna DeBack and Miranda White. Tourney MVP Katie Benz added the clinching score on a no-doubt header.

"Last year we came in very intimidated and threatened by their name," sophomore defender Crystal Fresquez said. "We could have walked away with a 1-0 (loss), but we just need to clean up a little bit on defense, marking up when we’re running toward the ball."

UH has gone 11 matches at home without a win, dating back to last season, tying the school record. The Wahine head to the mainland for a three-game swing in California starting Friday against No. 13 UC Irvine, followed by Long Beach State and Saint Mary’s.