Defender Casey Ikeda carries the ball up the field in the Terps’ 11-7 win against Penn on Feb. 24 at Byrd Stadium.

He’s a senior captain, has been one of the leaders of the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team’s top-ranked defense and has a spot waiting for him on MLL’s Florida Launch when his college career finishes this spring.

Casey Ikeda hardly ever has much to say, though. Especially about himself.

When reporters at the team’s official media day at Xfinity Center on Feb. 3 asked Ikeda about his ability to lead the defense without All-American Goran Murray, the defender downplayed the inquiries. And he didn’t boast about the defense’s showing in the Terps’ 11-4 win Saturday over Princeton, which entered the game having scored at least 14 goals in every contest.

“We had a great scout performance all week. Guys like [midfielder] Zack Wholley, [attackman] Tyler Brooke, [attackman] Ian [Robertson], they were all just giving us great looks all week,” Ikeda said after the win. “We were ready for some of the things they were going to show. their craftiness. When we thought they were covered in practice, they showed us they weren’t covered.”

Ikeda’s humble and composed nature is why coach John Tillman believes the team selected Ikeda to be a captain.

The veteran doesn’t attribute value to individual awards, such as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor he earned Monday.

“The biggest impact for Casey is his leadership, his ability to make guys around him better,” Tillman said. “He’s very soft-spoken, but when he does say something, it carries a lot of weight.”

As a long-stick close defender, Ikeda’s responsibilities lie more with marking key players and less toward filling up the box score; he recovered one ground ball and caused one turnover on Saturday, pushing his season totals to four and six, respectively. Plus, he’s never scooped more than 29 ground balls or forced more than 17 turnovers in a season.

He does, however, provide a steady presence in the locker room and on the field.

As the most experienced starting defender and the unit’s leader, Ikeda is following a long list of All-Americans, including long poles Jesse Bernhardt and Michael Ehrhardt.

When a Terps captain’s career ends, Tillman said, they often come back to the team and talk to the new captains. They “pick each other’s brains” and offer words of encouragement.

“Michael was very comfortable being our leader and being very vocal. Behind the scenes, you would hear Casey here and there. But he also knew that Michael was the captain,” Tillman said. “Now, I think Casey realizes, ‘This is my time.’”

Ikeda’s climb to defensive leader hasn’t been seamless. While his partner along the backline, junior Matt Dunn, played 14 games as a freshman in 2013, Ikeda’s college career hit a bump before he slipped on a Terps jersey.

Offseason shoulder surgery wiped out his 2011 season, and he logged three games the next season before receiving his first career start during the Terps’ 2013 season-opening 23-6 win against Mount St. Mary’s. He’s been in the starting lineup ever since.

Lacrosse pundits predicted the Terps defense would maintain its dominant ways before this season began, with Murray, Dunn and Ikeda slated to start together for the second consecutive year. The trio, after all, keyed the 2014 squad that held opponents to 7.24 goals per game while the team struggled offensively.

In Murray’s absence, though, the Terps defense has been even more potent, as it leads the country with a 5.00 goals-against average. Ikeda played a crucial role in the Terps’ defeat of Princeton, marking attackman Mike MacDonald, who entered the game with 10 goals. MacDonald launched three unsuccessful shots at goal.

“Casey would be the first guy to tell you that when a guy doesn’t score, there’s a scheme involved,” Tillman said. “In our scheme, Casey is critical.”

In the press room at Byrd Stadium after the Princeton game, a reporter asked Ikeda if it felt gratifying late in the fourth quarter when it was clear the Terps would earn the victory.

The team was on the verge of completing a rout of one the nation’s top-ranked offenses and snapping midfielder Kip Orban’s Division I-leading streak of scoring a goal in 29 consecutive games.

The captain didn’t hesitate.

“It’s always a good feeling to get a win,” Ikeda said.