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Terrapin men's lacrosse sophomore midfielder Bryn Holmes has been taking face-offs since he started playing lacrosse at age 6.

But it doesn't take 14 years of experience to know how important face-offs are to lacrosse success.

"Just having the ball is key," Holmes said. "You can't score without the ball, and they can't score without the ball. As long as we have it, we're in a good position to win the game."

But at times this season, the Terps have struggled to win face-offs. In the season opener against Georgetown, the Hoyas took 14-of-21 face-offs. And in last Saturday's loss at Duke, the Blue Devils won 17-of-26, including 8-of-9 in the first quarter.

Holmes, who shares primary face-off duties with senior midfielder Will Dalton, knows that needs to change.

"I think we need to step it up from all our games from here on out," Holmes said. "I'm kind of taking it personally and trying to have a better win percentage."

The Terps' first opportunity is tomorrow when they host No. 18 Towson at Ludwig Field at 1 p.m.

And coach Dave Cottle wants to see results. He said the team should be able to win 60 percent of its face-offs. Through four games this season, the Terps have only won about 50 percent, a figure strengthened by strong performances in big wins over Mount St. Mary's and Providence. The Terps won 47 percent of their face-offs last season.

Holmes has won 24-of-41 face-offs to pace the Terps, while Dalton has won 15-of-35.

Cottle said that he took emphasis off of face-offs after the Terps looked good in preseason scrimmages, but this week face-offs have once again become a major part of practice.

"If we're going to win a meaningful game, we can't get dominated like we have in the two big games we've had so far," Cottle said.

Cottle said the wing players, who are responsible for scooping up the ball if it is forced out during the initial fight for the ball, missed some groundball opportunities and were outplayed against Georgetown and Duke.

Redshirt junior midfielder Jeff Reynolds, who's seen both sides of the battle because he's spent time both facing off and on the wing this season, said the Terps have to put themselves in position to succeed.

"It's tough because a lot of times the ball just bounces the wrong way and goes in the other team's stick," Reynolds said. "Sometimes you get good breaks and sometimes you get bad breaks, but we need to pick up the wing play. It hurts when you're not winning face-offs."

While the Terps overcame the losses inside the face-off circle to beat the Hoyas, Duke took advantage. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 6-2 lead on the strength of their first quarter face-off domination on the way to handing the Terps their first loss of the season. Duke junior Sam Payton was named ACC Player of the Week for winning 14 of 19 draws against the Terps, including seven in the first quarter.

"It's upsetting," Dalton said of the performance against Duke. "I don't want to see anybody do that well against us. It's something that's behind us. We'll see them again and we'll do better."

The Terps will also need to do better against the Tigers, who won 14 of 18 face-offs in last year's 8-7 loss to the Terps.

And Dalton knows that winning face-offs simply makes the team better.

"If we win face-offs, technically, we can have the ball on offense the whole entire game," Dalton said. "When it comes down to big games, we can't lose that part of the game."

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