When the Penn State men's lacrosse team arrives at Holuba Hall for practice, the team's three face-off specialists stay together.

Off to the side of the field, they form a triangle and whip the ball to one another as they gradually get ready for the evening. After the whole team does a few warm-up drills, the face-off guys are back in the same spot, taking turns sparring against one another.

Although they're just practicing, the intensity heightens with each brawl.

"I'm sick of losing," Devin Madden yells to his teammates at one point during Monday's practice. Madden has been at the center of the field for the opening face-off in both of the Lions regular season games thus far. At the Monday practice, it wasn't clear whether he was referring to the Lions 0-2 start to the season, or their recent struggles at face-off.

In Sunday's loss to Notre Dame, the Lions lost two-thirds of their draws, including the first eight, which helped the Fighting Irish secure the ball for their offense, and, ultimately, the lead -- one that they would not relinquish in an 11-8 win. In each of the Lions' two losses, they have used all three face-off guys.

Joe Britt, a freshman face-off specialist who has won five of his 10, said that it is important to know as much as possible about upcoming opponents in order to succeed at the draws.

"He was just a tough guy," Britt said of Notre Dame's Taylor Clagett.

See Face-off, Page 16.

Face-off

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"He liked to draw it out, and we just had to get down and fight with him."

Face-offs in lacrosse tend to last much longer than their counterparts in other sports. Often, they resemble a wrestling match, where the two opponents dig for the ball for an extended period of time. Britt said that he, Madden and sophomore Jordan Kolb have been focused on trying to win each face-off "cleanly" -- getting the ball away from their opponents, scooping it up and running down the field.

However, that doesn't always happen for the Lions. Sometimes, the ball trickles away, and it's up to either team to try to scoop it up. Britt calls these situations "50-50 chances."

"[It's] not just all about clamping the ball and throwing it out," Britt said. "We have to chase after it and scoop it up in order to get the win. You don't win the face-off unless you end up with the ball."

Greg Gurenlian, a 2006 Penn State graduate and former lacrosse player, fielded face-offs for the past two seasons. During the fall and the first few weeks of this season, he worked with his replacements before leaving for a new job in New York. A new coach, Mike Kubic, has since taken over.

Britt doesn't think that the change in coaches has affected the team's play. He said that the practice routine is still mostly the same, though the two coaches emphasized different things.

"Coach Kubic really emphasizes going hard and going 100 percent," Britt said. "Gurenlian was more technique."

Injury Update

Max VanArsdale, a redshirt sophomore attacker, did not practice Monday night after bruising his left rib in the first quarter of Sunday's loss to Notre Dame. In an interview that night, VanArsdale said he is feeling sore and is not sure when he'll be back in practice.

"If I had it my way, I'd be practicing probably by [today]," VanArsdale said. "But I don't know if that's realistic or not right now."

VanArsdale has started both of the Lions regular season games thus far. He missed the entire 2006 season after undergoing reconstructive surgery on his ankle.

Another injured player, senior attacker Brian Boyle, has yet to see time on the field this season. Boyle, last year's leading scorer for the Lions, sprained his medial collateral ligament during pre-season practice.