The substitution box on a lacrosse field separates teams along the sidelines. The players who pass through there can separate them on the scoreboard.

In the early season, Maryland men’s lacrosse coaches worked different combinations of offensive and defensive midfield groups to find the best fits. Recently, the midfield lineups on both ends have begun to take shape.

“We have a saying: ‘It’s the 10 best guys that play together,’” midfielder Will Snider said. “Our coaches do an awesome job of making sure we’re in positions to be comfortable and play to the best of our ability.”

[Read more: Maryland men’s lacrosse’s fourth-quarter burst was key in win over Navy]

For the midfielders who supplement the attack, coach John Tillman has used a first and second line this season. The first line currently consists of Anthony DeMaio, Bubba Fairman and Snider, while the second includes Kyle Long, Russell Masci and Christian Zawadzki.

DeMaio started the season on the second line, but replaced Zawadzki on the first against Penn on Feb. 16. Since DeMaio’s ascendance in the third game of the season, the group has tallied seven goals and seven assists across three games.

While the first line has been productive, Tillman is aware that depth scoring is a requisite for team success, so he turns to the second midfield line.

“You’re not going to be very successful if you don’t have a couple midfields you can play,” Tillman said. “If you can’t get much out of your second midfield, you’re really going to struggle.”

[Read more: Anthony DeMaio has established himself as a valuable bench piece for Maryland lacrosse]

Going into the season, Tillman saw numerous players vying for spots on those lines. While continuing to toy with personnel through the season’s first contests, a new combination debuted against Colgate on Feb. 19, with freshman Long joining Masci and Zawadzki on the second midfield line.

Since Long joined the group, he’s recorded three assists — one to Masci and Zawadzki each — in two games.

Last season, lacrosse pundits pinpointed the Terps’ short-stick defensive midfielders as an area of weakness. Those concerns were validated in Maryland’s 13-8 semifinal loss to Duke, as the short-stick defensive midfielders struggled to stay attached to their man, opening holes for the Blue Devils to exploit with a shot or an extra pass.

“You never want to be the weak point of a strong team like Maryland lacrosse,” defensive midfielder Thomas O’Connell said. “So we took it personally in the offseason. Every day, we just looked to get better.”

That provided extra motivation for the returning midfielders, which — along with the addition of transfers Michael Chiaramonte and Alex Smith — has helped the group improve.

Tillman said he wasn’t sure what role Smith would play after he transferred from Hartford, where he played more of an offensive role last year. But since that initial uncertainty, the team has seen him transform into a valuable defensive piece alongside Chiaramonte, a fellow Bethesda native.

Along with O’Connell and the two transfers, Tillman said midfielder Roman Puglise has made marked improvements from his freshman season. The sophomore was rewarded for his progress with the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday.

“It’s a really interesting dynamic, because we had a couple guys transfer in, and I think we’ve done a really nice job meshing with those new guys,” Snider said. “We’re really deep this year, and that’s evident in our short stick [defensive] mids.”

The pursuit of continued success among the midfield groupings resumes Sunday against No. 17 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish boast a good defense and talented offensive midfielders, and Tillman said they’ll test both Maryland groups sprinting in from the substitution box.

“We’re rotating different types of players in. We have all different styles of play and we’re still working through to play together,” O’Connell said. “All we got to do is keep growing from there.”