Served as captain of the West Texas A&M Buffs in 2009, and was second in goals scored (7), number of points (16) and game winning goals (2) behind teammate (and Sockers teammate) Ben Everson.
Held the highest shot on goal percentage on the team at .917 after taking 11 of 12 shots on goal, and was a perfect 3-for-3 converting all penalty kick attempts. He scored a pair of goals in a 5-0 victory over the University of the Southwest.
Nielsen was named to the all-LSC first team and to the LSC all-Academic team. He was also named to the Daktronics all-American first team.
