FROM LUSAKA TO LEXINGTON: The Life of an International Student-Athlete at W&L

Washington and Lee University and Connecticut College had battled nearly the entire match, with no goals scored by either team, when W&L midfielder Victor Ndhlovu brought down a high pass with his foot. Two opponents converged, forcing him to fight his way through to make space to pass the ball to an open teammate. The move began a sequence that involved two other players and led to the Generals’ only goal of the men’s NCAA Division III soccer Final Four in December 2021.

“He had to fight off half of Conn College. He pushed through a tough window and made a really great pass,” said midfielder Grant McCarty, who received the ball and got it to forward Adrian Zimmerman to score the goal. “It was probably his best play of the season. It came when the team needed it.”

The momentum shift didn’t last, and W&L lost the match, ending an historic season. The team was ranked No. 1 nationally throughout the season and was undefeated going into the second round of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament. But the Generals lost in an upset to Randolph College. The team then received a No. 1 seed at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Ndhlovu’s journey to Lexington, Virginia, began in his hometown of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. By the time he was 7, Ndhlovu was playing soccer with his friends, dreaming about joining the Zambian Men’s National Football Team.

But in high school, he realized he wasn’t going to play professional soccer. That’s when he turned his sights to college—in the United States.

“The older you get, the more you start to come to terms with the truth, I guess,” Ndhlovu said. “But at least I’m here.”

In his sophomore year of high school, he accepted that he probably wouldn’t play pro soccer at home, and reached out to the Zambian Institute for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit group in Zambia. The organization encourages young people like him to pursue educations in other countries and return to help develop solutions to Zambia’s social, economic and technological problems.

The organization then sent videos of him playing soccer to recruiters who act as go-betweens for athletes and colleges.

“I told them I either wanted to play soccer or track. I gave them my times, showed them some video,” he said.

His recruitment to W&L is typical of how international athletes wind up playing collegiate sports, like soccer and track.

Ndhlovu said he noticed first that soccer in the U.S. is more physical than in Zambia. International players like Ndhlovu take a more creative, but tactical approach to the game, McCarty said.

In Zambia, Ndhlovu said, many kids see soccer as a way out of poverty. “It’s very competitive, especially in the rural areas, because there are a lot of kids that come in from crime towns and troubled homes,” he said. “So, soccer is all they have to do and how better to manage my time.”

He also had to adjust to the style of soccer played in the U.S.—and at a Division III school. “It’s a very physical long ball, very little actual soccer,” Ndhlovu said.

George Biddle, a senior midfielder, said international players like Ndhlovu come to play. “They’re great, and they came in ready to work hard,” he said.

Ndhlovu said Coach Michael Singleton made him feel welcome. “You can tell, he’s really game ... It helps to fire me up.”

Ndhlovu said he remembers his key moment late in the Final Four match with Connecticut College.

“As the ball came towards me, I tried to flick it between two players but didn’t quite get the touch I wanted,” he said. “A defender stepped in front of me. It had been a physical game, and I wasn’t about to give up on the play. So, I shielded off two players to regain the ball.”

At that moment, Ndhlovu said, he saw McCarty open on the wing. “He played a square ball to Adrian [Zimmerman], who in the form he was in, was never going to miss,” when the sun’s out. So yeah, you kind of get good at it if you play it every day.”

He’d never been to W&L’s campus until he arrived in August 2019, three days before the soccer team began preparing for the preseason.

Ndhlovu said he experienced culture shock, struggling with the meaning of American slang, comprehending a new academic grading system, and being asked to repeat himself because his teammates and classmates had trouble understanding his accent.

“Coming in as a freshman [it] feels like it’s just you on your own versus the world,” Ndhlovu said. “But now I know where to find the resources, understanding, and he cares, and he’s very cultured,” Ndhlovu said.

Ndhlovu started some games during the season, but he usually came in off the bench. In soccer, there’s a lot of strategic substituting of players because of the fast-paced nature of the sport.

McCarty said Ndhlovu’s contributions were important to the team’s success.

“I guess he has a more serious leadby-example attitude than a lot of the team,” McCarty said. “You can feel a lot of his energy during the

Ndhlovu said. “I started celebrating before he even shot it.”

Nine minutes and 17 seconds later, Connecticut scored their first goal and went on to win the game, 2-1.

Ndhlovu said he has high hopes for next season. “We do better and yeah, we win the ODAC and the Natty [national championship].”