She’s cheating on you
Solveig Nilson is forced to leave her relationship
Autumn McDowell
Sports Editor
Solvieg Nelson has had a five-year relationship with the University of Regina women’s volleyball team. Although their relationship has been through its ups and downs, the two have finally decided to part ways.
While Nilson has been Facebook official with the Cougars since 2007, she admits that, when she was younger, volleyball was not the only one in the picture.
“I played basketball first and lots of girls that I played basketball with were playing volleyball on a club team, so I joined that with them and played both teams provincially for a couple of years,” Nilson admitted. “I ended up choosing volleyball.”
Though Nilson may have done some experimenting with basketball in her past, she felt the U of R was the perfect place to see her relationship with volleyball blossom.
“U of R had a relatively good program and I played volleyball in Regina all along,” Nilson said. “They had a good program, but also this is my hometown so that was a huge part of it.”
With the threat of a long-distance relationship out of the question, Nilson turned her attention to a five-year vow, which she nervously accepted.
“Five years is a long time and it’s a long commitment,” Nilson said. “It’s hard work to keep that commitment, because there is a lot of other options that you could be doing.”
Although other options were attractive, Nilson could not keep her hands off of her true love.
“What kept me coming back was just the team and the girls that I was playing with,” she said. “The drive to want to be successful and even the feeling of ‘I am not going to give up.’ I don’t feel good when I quit.
Had Nilson given up on her relationship with volleyball, she would not have been able to experience the joys of the third year together.
“I would have to say in our third year, it was my best year out of my five,” Nilson said. “There was a lot of long games and the excitement of having our own home playoff game makes a huge difference. It is always more fun to play at home.”
However, the relationship took a turn for the worse recently and, after five years together, Nilson and Cougars volleyball have been forced to call it quits. It is not going to be an easy transition for the 6-foot-2 middle blocker, as she admits she already misses Cougar volleyball.
“I’m missing aspects of it. I’m also enjoying the other freedoms of being able to do other things and focus on school and just take a breath,” she said. “After every year, I just take a couple of weeks just to relax a little because it is emotional; the whole season is emotional.”
While the laps of their five-year eligible commitment ultimately lead to the twos split, one could also say the two were just in different places in their lives.
“I have applied for medicine, so I have a couple of interviews this month, hopefully I get it,” Nilson said. “Other than that I am also traveling as soon as my finals are over; I am going to South America and Central America.”
Future travel and school plans would put too much stress on the couple, but Nilson admits there are plenty of other girls that will be able to take her place.
“There is a lot of first and second years on our team now because we graduated a lot of players, so I just know that they are going to see success because there is a good core of them,” she said. “They are talented athletes and they are committed athletes, so I just want to see them just keep getting better every year and have success and also grow as people. You change a lot and mature a lot between your first and fifth year.”
While many people had high hopes for their relationship, it has become a concern that Nilson will go back to her ex. She openly admits to plans of cheating on volleyball, as she cannot stay away from bad boys.
“After a little bit of a break just for my body I will probably play women’s league,” she said. “Then I look forward to maybe playing some more basketball because that part of me has been suppressed for about five years.”
I’ve been following your articles throughout this semester and I applaud your efforts to become a sports editor. I recognize that becoming a respected sports editor is difficult as a woman and I was appalled to read in one of your first articles that a professor actually told you that you would never be hired for knowing sports but instead because you are a tall, blonde, and attractive woman. I hope you reported him. I was also on board with your article in the Valentine’s day issue about how hard it is to be a respected female sports editor without someone hitting on you. However, after I read this article, I was appalled. After all of your complaining about being perceived as a sexual object by other men in the world of sports, why on earth would you write an article that talked about a female athlete leaving her team in terms of “cheating” and “leaving a relationship”? If you do not want to be sexualized in the world of sports, why would sexualize a female athlete in your article? Would you write an article in those same terms about a male athlete? Writing that article in a sexualized way appears to be a double standard. You might want to think about how your writing about athletes should reflect your views on how you want to be treated.