As the March sun falls on the tennis courts across the parking lot next to Stopher Gym, the Nicholls State men’s tennis team is preparing for their match against the visiting Southern University Jaguars. Coach Jim Hunter officially begins the start of the match by introducing his team to the visitors from Baton Rouge in order of seeding from first to sixth.

As the Colonels start to warm up for their respective doubles matches before the start of singles play, two of the players quickly greet each other, engage in a short conversation, then hug before running to opposite sides of the court to start the match.

Those in attendance at Friday’s game witnessed the first time Colonel Phenyo Matong and his brother Onkabetse met on the hard court as collegiate athletes.

Onkabetse, a freshman, is beginning his first year at Southern, while his older brother Phenyo, who is a sophomore, is starting his first full year of play on the Colonels squad.

The Matong brothers hail from Gaborone, Botswana, a town located on the border of Botswana and South Africa.

With their first meeting just moments away, Phenyo is intrigued to see how far his brother has progressed in his tennis game.

“It’s interesting to see how much his game has progressed as opposed to mine, since I’ve been able to practice with college athletes,” Phenyo said. “It’s going to be fun to see if there is a gap between our styles of play.”

It takes roughly an hour and a half to get to Southern from Nicholls, but that was not the reason the brothers chose the schools they did. In fact, Phenyo chose Nicholls because of former coach Dominic Modise and Onkabetse originally wanted to attend Nicholls, but instead chose Southern because he had a friend on the Southern team.

“I wanted to go to Nicholls, but some things didn’t go through,” Onkabetse said. “I had a friend that was already on the team at Southern, and he talked to the coach for me, so that’s why I chose Southern.”

Having played one another enough over the years, the Matong brothers know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. As kids they said they quarreled a lot, and though it was never bad, it fueled their competitive fire on the tennis court.

Onkabetse said Phenyo is a very consistent player and has very smooth strokes when placing the ball where he wants to on the court, while Phenyo said Onkabetse can do certain things that he cannot.

“He has great ground strokes, and can keep the ball in play very well,” Phenyo said. “There are a lot of things he can do better than me, and if he works on them he can be very, very good.”

Phenyo and Onkabese said without tennis, they would not have the opportunities they have now, such as getting an education, and competing with the best tennis players in the conference and country.

“I know without tennis I wouldn’t be here,” Onkabese said. “Now while I’m in school, I don’t have to pay a cent of my tuition, and without it, I would be back home in Africa.”

Phenyo, a government major, said college is very important to him, and tennis and learning are both priorities for him.

“It’s very important to be able to balance athletics and school, because if you let either one slip, there will be consequences,” he said. “It’s a challenge to do both, but so far it’s been rewarding.”

With the men’s team comprised of international players, Nicholls coach Jim Hunter said like many teams across the country, players like Phenyo and Onkabese add a new dimension of diversity to a university’s population.

“Tennis in some places can be like having six or seven different nations playing together on one team,” Hunter said. “When you get players like Phenyo on your team, who is so focused on making a better life for himself, it’s a real pleasure to watch him grow as a player and as a person.”

All left to be settled was who would come out on top in their matches. On this day, Phenyo would get the better of his brother, beating Onkabese 5-2 in doubles, and then 7-5, 6-3 in singles.

Still both look to become more than just athletes here in the United States and can be ambassadors for others like them in their country.

“The culture here is very different and is so much bigger than back home,” Phenyo said. “Hopefully we can make the most of our time here and be able to help others who want to do more with their lives back home.