The young goalkeeper grew up in the Australian Women’s National Team youth system, and after high school, was splitting time between the Young Matildas and Western Sydney Wanderers of the W-League.

Her only distraction came from 7,497 miles away in Los Angeles, California.

One day during Wanderers training, Micah told teammates, American Keelin Winters and Canadian Carmelina Moscato, about a coach in America who was persistently calling her about coming to play for his team. The coach was Josh Walters at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Winters and Moscato gave each other a look of disbelief.

“You need to go!” said the internationals.

That short exchange gave the young goalkeeper pause, and a new perspective on where her career was and the possibility of where it could go.

“As I did more research and started speaking to Josh and the other UCLA coaches, I figured it was a great opportunity,” says Micah, now in her third year at UCLA.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Junior year, let’s gooo🙌🏼

A post shared by TEAGAN MICAH (@teaganmicah_) on

“I just finished high school and I always knew that I wanted to mix my degree with soccer, so I thought I might as well give it a go. If I don't like it, I can always come back home.”

Micah soon found that she not only liked it, she thrived in the American college system. In 2017, the Redcliffe, Queensland native was named Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Week, posted nine shutouts, saved a game-winning penalty kick in the College Cup semifinals, moved into fifth on UCLA’s all-time career shutout list, and led the nation in goalkeeper minutes played with 2,228.

Now early into the 2018 season, Micah has already been named Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Week, was selected to the Top Drawer Soccer Team of the Week for the first time in her college career, and has moved into fifth place on UCLA’s career victory list.

In June 2017, during Tournament of Nations (ToN), another coach was persistently calling Micah.