He’s a three-year starter and was a third team All-America pick a season ago. He’s part lockdown defender and part traffic cop for the stingy Terrapins. He accepted a job at an Annapolis consulting firm in April, firming up his post-graduation plans. And he’s one of 10 finalists nationally for the Senior Class Award, which honors a mix of academic, athletic, character and community service achievements.

“We kind of joke he’ll be president someday,” coach John Tillman said. “He’s in the honors program. He’s in the business school. He had an internship in New York City. He’s a guy who’s always squared away. He’s always looking out for the younger guys. I’ve never heard him swear. He’s such an awesome kid.”

The finance major’s path to College Park wasn’t quite what has become the norm in college lacrosse. A player with his skillset --- steady but not eye-popping, with success stemming more from studiousness than sheer athleticism --- doesn’t necessarily stand out at recruiting showcases.

While plenty of his peers committed to colleges as sophomores, Dunn was a junior at Baltimore’s Loyola Blakefield before Maryland contacted him.

“For me, for what I was looking at for schools, Maryland was on [the radar] early,” Dunn said. “The two-way communication understandably wasn’t open.”

That changed soon enough. Tillman, always on the lookout for high-end students, took an extended look at Dunn and liked what he saw. Dunn made a trip to College Park the day before the Terrapins left to play North Carolina in the first round of the 2011 NCAA tournament.

By the end of the month, Maryland had played in a national title game to cap Tillman’s first season, and Dunn accepted an offer to arrive on campus a year later.

“With all this early recruiting, Matt was kind of the opposite,” Tillman said. “I still remember when [Loyola coach] Jack Crawford was like ‘I’ve got a guy who’s getting overlooked, but I think this guy is really good.’ We did a little digging and everybody we talked to raved about him. It came down to us and Princeton, and we don’t usually win those battles. I think he liked the bigger school experience.”

As a freshman, he joined a team with a who’s who of quality defensive players who had gotten the Terps to yet another national title game. Between Jesse Bernhardt at long pole, Goran Murray, Michael Ehrhardt and Brian Cooper at close defense, Landon Carr at short stick and Niko Amato in the cage, Dunn wasn’t sure what sort of role he could carve out for himself.

But the staff moved Cooper to short stick, and that opened up some playing time for Dunn. He impressed coaches with his ability to communicate effectively, a trait that remained one of his strengths throughout his career.

“To me, that was one of the easiest things to control. Even in high school when I was trying out as a sophomore, that was a way to distinguish yourself that really only took a conscious effort,” Dunn said. “To get more athletic, more skilled, more experienced, it takes time and you have to put in the time, which is important. But when it comes to things like communication and being coachable, it just takes focus and the desire to do it.”

It’s a particularly valuable skill in a scheme more reliant on a combined defensive effort rather than just matchups, and that’s what Maryland has tried to build in recent years.

For the defensive unit, effective communication begins in practice where “Le Beast” --- a nickname long pole Greg Danseglio bestowed upon Dunn last season --- is frequently heard shouting orders.

“Some days when you’re out there and you don’t even realize you’re not talking too much and you hear him screaming at you or telling you which way to go, you think ‘I have to pick my volume up and get everyone around me to be better,’” defensive midfielder Nick Manis said. “That’s his major attribute. He makes everyone around him better.”