With a round of grins and laughter, three seemingly ordinary freshmen gather at the far end of the Atkins Tennis Center’s indoor courts. A discernible sense of excitement surrounds them even though the subject matter of the conversation is less important than the people behind it.

It turns out these freshmen are far from ordinary. They are the newest additions to the Illini men’s tennis team, and they are enjoying every second of it.

Meet Abe Souza, the “likeable” one of the bunch, according to junior teammate Marc Spicijaric. A native of St. Louis, Souza brings an impressive history of success to the Illini, including the St. Louis National Clay Court Championships doubles title.

His roommate, the “quiet” Connor Roth, who hails from Lisle, Ill., has spent the last month and a half adjusting to residence hall life with his freshman teammate and sometimes it hasn’t been entirely easy.

“He likes really girly music,” Roth said of Souza. “All sorts. He’s all over the board, it’s pretty funny, Cascada and all these other techno songs. He listens to light rock and rap, but then he’s got that all the time. When he gets hooked on a song he’ll listen to it 12 times in a row until he doesn’t like it anymore.”

As far as first impressions are concerned, though, Roth may not be so perfect himself as sophomore teammate Billy Heiser might attest. During a recent team pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee, Heiser ended up on the wrong end of one of Roth’s tosses.

“I was 10 feet away and I threw the Frisbee as hard as I could, and it hit him right in the forehead,” Roth said.

The third member of the freshman trio is Calon Alpar, who resides one floor above Souza and Roth in Van Doren Hall. Alpar is the goofiest character of the three and has been a frequent target of pranks at the hands of friends and teammates since joining the team.

“Calon’s pretty gullible,” Souza said. “You can convince him of pretty much anything. A couple of his friends told him that school was closed last week because of a bomb threat, and he believed him and he almost didn’t go to class because of it.”

But these three freshmen were not recruited based on their respective senses of humor. It was their overwhelming collection of talent that placed them directly in the recruiting crosshairs of head coach Brad Dancer.

Senior Brandon Davis also sensed that there is something special about this year’s freshman class.

“All three are good players,” Davis said. “They can all contribute to the team immediately this year. It’s probably going to be one of those senior classes where you look back and say, ‘Man, that’s an awesome class,’ so hopefully they can morph into that.”

Roth, Souza and Alpar all garnered five-star ratings in the nation’s class of 2007, and, as a result, drew interest from many other top Division-I schools. It was the prestige involved with playing for the program at Illinois, however, that ultimately won their commitments.

“I came to the very first matches here in January and the intensity and the crowd was better than anywhere I’ve ever been,” Alpar said. “The team aspect of it was great, everyone was so high on everyone else. Another reason is it’s an American team and everyone is real close. It’s a great team atmosphere and Brad Dancer is probably the best coach that I talked to when I was looking at schools.”

The Illini are already seeing impressive returns from their freshman class early on in the fall season.

Souza fought his way into the semifinals of the Louisville Fall Invitational this past weekend and finished the tournament with a solid 3-1 record.

Roth showed similar flashes of brilliance at the highly competitive Fluitt Invitational the same weekend, finishing with a 1-3 record against some of the top college tennis players in country.

Though the freshmen have made a seemingly smooth transition to the collegiate level, the process has not been entirely free of bumps and bruises. Souza recalled his first full week with the team as a somewhat shocking experience.

“I got here on a Saturday and moved in,” Souza said. “Monday we had a fitness test. It went for about an hour and everybody was ready to die and throw up. That was the first real difference. In Juniors you can train hard, I always trained really hard, but if I got tired I could say, ‘Alright I’m done,’ and the coaches wouldn’t say anything. Here you’re forced to go above and beyond what you think is possible. That’s going to lead to a lot more improvement than we could ever imagine.”

The upperclassmen on the team can sympathize with these freshman growing pains and have been doing their part to help their new teammates make the proper adjustments.

Whether it be text messaging them to make sure they’re attending class or offering assistance with schoolwork, social life or tennis mechanics, this support system has been at the freshmen’s disposal throughout the fall season.

“We help them be resourceful and always try to figure things out,” Spicijaric said. “If they’re having a problem, they can always come to us for help. Also we make sure they’re on top of their school work, because if you have trouble with school, it affects your tennis.”

With the infusion of fresh talent that Souza, Roth and Alpar bring to the table for the Illini, it is no surprise that the team is encouraged about the early contributions they are seeing from the freshmen as the Illini look to build on their appearance in the national championship game last season.

Davis sees the freshmen as a positive addition to the team talent-wise, but also is impressed by the sense of solidarity that they have already started to display.

“Anytime a class of freshmen comes in and they get the camaraderie going and they’re good tennis players it’s just huge for the team,” Davis said.

Ultimately, it was this special combination of talent and personality that brought Souza, Roth and Alpar to Illinois, where their potential for success in the future is seemingly unlimited.

“They’re great kids,” Dancer said. “We wouldn’t have them as part of the program if they weren’t.”