In Champaign, Green Street is prime real estate. Close to the Quad and at the heart of Campustown, students sign leases 10 months before their start dates just to land a pad on the University’s main drag.

Two years ago, seven Illinois soccer players found an aging house right on Green Street, but several blocks past the edge of campus.

They say they didn’t love the location, but couldn’t pass up the character and quirkiness the place offered.

“We had a game that day, so everybody’s parents happened to be in town,” one player reminisced. “Everybody came and saw it and we really liked it, so when the realtor said another group was interested we were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll take it.’ It was kind of an impulse thing.”

Today, goalie Lindsey Carstens, midfielder/defender Kara Gostisha, forwards Ella Masar and Eva Strickland, defenders Mary Therese McDonnell and Emily Zurrer and midfielder Kristy Weeks have fallen in love with their off-campus home.

When they’re not at class or practice, the No. 10-ranked Illini, all of them, not just the ones who live there, can often be found lounging in the living room or playing euchre at the dining room table.

“Janet, our coach, made a comment the other day about how after two years nobody’s drifted off, nobody really gets in fights,” Carstens says. “And that’s true.”

Creative construction

It’s hard to say how many bedrooms are in the soccer house. While seven players live there, one is in the attic, one occupies a converted living room on the first floor, and one bedroom can only be reached by passing through two others.

There are other quirks to the house. Two staircases run side-by-side to the second floor, originally intended to separate servants from the family who owned the home. A dingy basement holds the power controls for the house – and the apartment building next door. And when the girls moved in, none of the bedrooms were wired for light fixtures.

“It’s old, really old,” the players agree.

Susan, the other roommate

One night, Ella Masar woke up to an unsettling sound.

“It’s like two or three in the morning and I head these gut-wrenching screams,” Masar remembers. “I thought I was dreaming, but when I heard it the second time, I got really freaked out.”

Masar picked up her shoe bag for protection and went downstairs to investigate the noise, but never found its source.

“That was my experience with the ghost,” Masar said.

The ghost, which Gostisha and Zurrer named Susan, is said to live in an attic closet. She’s been known to turn on the radio when no one is in the room and

“When we first moved in, we were painting our rooms and I had a huge thing of pink paint,” Lindsey Carstens says. “I put it in the hallway, left it sitting on the wood floor with nothing around it. We were all downstairs, and when we walked back upstairs Susan had flipped it over, pink paint all over the hall, everywhere.”

Kowaly the … koala?

Every team needs a mascot, right? For Illinois soccer that might be Kowaly, a stuffed animal that once looked like a koala but several reconstructive surgeries and nearly two decades later, is barely hanging on to his original shape.

Kowaly was a childhood gift from Gotisha’s grandpa. He not only came to college with her, but tags along on road trips and is a frequent study buddy, when Gotisha perches him on her shoulder as she does homework.

“It’s not even a koala anymore, it’s more like a rag,” several of Gotisha’s roommates chime in as she defends the bear.

“I get a lot for that,” Gotisha says. “Everyone steals it on road trips.”

Kowaly traveled to Italy, Brazil and even tagged along on a spring break trip to Daytona.

“She says ‘I seriously could sleep without it,'” Masar says. “But it’s always right next to her.”

Illini pride

Like most college homes, common areas like the living room and stairways are plastered with posters and pictures. Stepping through the front door, you can’t help but notice two huge soccer banners on the wall and above the fireplace. A Chief Illiniwek flag hands in the living room, and a pink poster of Disney Princesses is labeled with the names of each girl in the house identifying her as one of the characters.

The stairs to Zurrer’s room in the attic are lined with photos from road trips and around campus intermixed with Big Ten pennants and Illini sports posters.

“It was just kind of bare and I wanted to put something up,” Zurrer said. “It kind of personalized it.”

Duke the amish dog

Last Christmas, a friend gave Weeks a miniature Doberman Pincer named Duke. The catch was, he had to be picked up from a local Amish family’s home-in the middle of Champaign’s first snow.

After getting lost and going to the wrong house, the girls eventually found their only male roommate.

“We have a love hate relationship with Duke,” McDonnell says.

“Right now it’s hate,” Masar chimes in. “He ate my bread. Who eats bread out of the plastic?”

The girls say Duke has developed a prissy personality.

“When other guys come over he barks at them,” they say. “He’s just one of the girls.”

Story and photos courtesy of SportsIllustrated.com.