Whipsnakes defenders Bryce Young and Matt Dunn have been teammates now for over six years, dating back to their college days at the University of Maryland. Two staples to the Whips’ defense since the inaugural 2019 season, I talked with each of them about one another. Read what Matt Dunn has to say about his teammate.

Sarah: If you had to describe Bryce as a lacrosse player in one or as little words as possible, what would you say? 

Matt: If I had to go with one word, it’d be “dangerous.” Bryce has a confrontational style of play. He’s about his business, he’s fundamental, and he’s appropriately aggressive. 

Sarah: You mention he has a confrontational style of play, something that rounds out the Whipsnakes defense really well. What do you consider his greatest strength as a defender? 

Matt: He's imposing. It’s kind of more of an intangible; other teams feel Bryce on the field, and with his presence they think twice about cutting to certain spots, or dodging in certain areas. There’s a lot of value in that. He does a lot of things well technically, but intangibly I think his greatest strength is what an imposing presence on the field.

Sarah: Is there a certain aspect of his game you recognize as his teammate that someone watching at home might not notice? 

Matt: Bryce is a really complementary player. He’s physical and fills gaps well, he’s good at spacing off-ball, and he anticipates plays really well. He’s also got a really good stick - he’s a guy who ends up with a lot of groundballs and can get the ball from the defensive end to the offensive end. Having someone on your defense who can help clean up messes and possess the ball himself is really valuable. 

Sarah: Looking back on the 2022 season, is there any one game in particular you recall that best exemplifies the kind of player Bryce is? 

Matt: One of our best defensive games this season was against the Atlas on Long Island [6/17]. They have a great attack in [Jeff] Teat, Chris [Gray], and [Eric] Law, and Bryce was covering Chris Gray who’s such a dynamic attackman and he really executed our game plan well. I think that was a great game for us all on defense because even with such a good attack, we were able to execute as we planned. 

Of course, as teammates and friends for years now, I had to ask a couple non-lacrosse related questions.

Sarah: What’s something about Bryce fans might not know? 

Matt: Bryce comes off with a hard exterior as this serious, emotionless guy, but he’s got a yellow lab named Lemon who’s his entire Instagram feed. Every single picture is some portrait-style picture of her or something. It’s a real contrast to what people see on the field - he has a soft spot.

Sarah: Last question: if you were to pick any actor to play Bryce in a movie, who would you pick?

Matt: I’d say Jason Momoa, but that might be too big of an ego boost for him. Probably most fitting though so I’ll stick with it.

#50-#41 of the 2022 Players Top 50 are out now. Check back tomorrow for #40-#31.