Werry plays big role on faceoffs for Tar Heels

It's never easy following in someone's footsteps.

It's even harder when that someone is an All-American who holds several school records.

But in Saturday's season opener against No. 17 Denver, it was exactly what North Carolina junior Dave Werry had to do.

One of the biggest questions for the fifth-ranked UNC men's lacrosse team this season was the hole at the faceoff-X, where the team lost All-American Kevin Frew to graduation.

Werry was tapped to fill the void left by Frew, who finished his career at UNC with a school record 446 faceoffs won, including 219 last season.

As if that wasn't enough pressure, his first game taking over that role came against Denver's faceoff tandem of Scott Davidson and Geoff Snider, who combined to win an impressive 177 of 313 faceoffs last season.

"I knew there was going to be a lot of pressure on opening day, especially filling the void of Kevin Frew," Werry said. "I knew coming in that I was going to have to really fight hard."

Werry started the game off strong, winning four of the game's first five faceoffs, but finished the day 8-for-23.

But while those numbers might not look impressive, Werry's toughness at the faceoff-X was enough to leave strong impressions.

"There were times where we held our own," said UNC coach John Haus. "(Werry) went up against a kid that is a senior that has been around for a while for Denver, so I think Dave did an okay job."

Teammates credited Werry's tenacity in faceoffs as part of the reason the Tar Heels were able to slow down Denver's fast-break offense.

"The main thing that I was thinking about today going out there was keeping them off the fast break," Werry said.

"They did a lot of pushing the fast break off the draw, even against Kevin last year, and that's pretty dangerous for us. So, I was happy that ... we kept them from the fast break for the most part."

But despite how well the team did against Denver's strong faceoff and midfield units, Werry said he will have to win more faceoffs for the team to beat second-ranked Navy for the first time since 2002.

"The thing about the X is, the more we get (the offense) the ball, the better we're going to be offensively," he said. "So, that's going to be our focus going into next week."

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.