New Kid on the Bluff

Not everyone can say they broke two pool records in their first two individual events at Duquesne, but freshman Line Lovberg can.  

An international student from Oslo, Norway, Line (pronounced Lee-nuh) Lovberg is an integral member of the women's swim team. She has placed first in all of her individual butterfly events so far this year and swims as anchor for the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In the beginning, Lovberg didn't even know if she was coming to Duquesne because of the school's lack of a men's swim team. The men's team was discontinued following the 2009-10 season.

"At first, I thought I was going to school with my boyfriend," Lovberg laughed. "I only looked at schools with both [men's and women's] teams."

Then she began an email correspondence with Duquesne's swim coach Dave Sheets. The two began their conversations after a trainer in Norway who swam with Sheets in college exchanged their contact information.

"[H]e emailed me and said that she was looking for a place to go," Sheets said. "He spoke very highly of her. So Line and I began an email dialogue, and through that email dialogue, I got an opportunity to know her. It turned out that we were lucky enough to have her come here."

A low Test of English as a Foreign Language score hindered Lovberg's college choices. Many schools wanted her to retake the test before they would look at her for recruiting, but she had a meet on the last day of testing for applications for the upcoming school year.

"To be honest, at first, I only applied to schools in warm areas. But they wanted me to take the TOEFL over, and I couldn't," Lovberg said through a thick accent.

Sheets is excited that Loveberg ended up choosing Duquesne because of what she brings to the program overall.

"She's a great teammate, first of all. She encourages her teammates in practice, and she always makes sure that they're doing their best while she's doing her best," Sheets said. "She brings a lot of first places. She brings another dimension to our program, and I think overall it just helps us become better."

Junior teammate Miriam McGeath agrees.

"Last meet, she got the Wonderwoman award for swimming her best and cheering and just being a team supporter. We all [the team] vote on it after the meet. She's bringing up our team morale," McGeath said.

Lovberg grinned while talking about the pool records she broke in her first college meet.

"It's great," she said. "I didn't go for the record. I didn't know it was a record until after. I was just swimming for fun. I have high expectations of myself and am a competitive person."

Sheets is excited for Lovburg's future on the team.

"If she continues on the course she's going now, she's got a very good opportunity to make [the NCAA meet]. She's going to win lots of conference titles, but ultimately ... we'd like her to make the NCAAs," Sheets said.

If her first two meets were any indication, Lovberg might be able to reach those high expectations long before her career is done.