 After being heavily recruited by several colleges around the country , Solo attended the University of Washington from 1999 to 2002 where she majored in speech communications . With the Huskies , she switched permanently to goalkeeper under the lead of head coach <unk> Gallimore and goalkeeper coach and former national team player , Amy Griffin . Solo described the transition in her memoir , " In high school , I had been the forward who won games . It was a huge mental adjustment to learn that my job was to save games . To anticipate what was needed . Before , I would stand in goal , the ball would come toward me , and I 'd use my athletic ability to make the save . But thanks to Amy 's tutelage and my time with the national team , I was becoming a much better tactical goalkeeper . I learned how to read my opponents ' runs toward goal , how to position my defenders , how to see the angles ... The intellectual side also made goalkeeping so much more interesting . It wasn 't just ninety minutes of waiting for my defense to make a mistake . It was ninety minutes of tactics and strategy . The personality traits that had been shaped by my childhood — resilience and toughness — were assets at the position . " 
