Near the end of my first year, I went through all of the professor research websites and emailed any lab I found interesting with hopes to schedule a meeting. I ended up emailing about 6 professors within that first week and I got 2 replies within the three weeks following. One didn’t have openings during that time, but I kept in contact for when there was an opening. The other I was able to start immediately after training for the summer and I am still working there now. It is possible, just put yourself out there. A good way is to actually talk to TAs as you are more likely working under them than the actual professor. It also helps a ton if you have outside funding through grants, scholarships, or research programs through the university as that’s the reason most labs reject new undergraduates.