Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

NEW YORK - Senior middle blocker Daniel Lapson (Skokie, Ill.) registered a team-best 21.5 points over the course of two matches Sunday at the Max Stern Athletic Center, as the Yeshiva University men's volleyball opened up its 2013 campaign with a non-conference doubleheader split. The Macs fell in their opening match by a 3-0 count to Lehman College (25-18, 25-21, 26-24), before rallying from one set down on two occasions for a hard-fought, five-set triumph over Washington Adventist University (20-25, 25-17, 17-25, 25-18, 15-13) in the nightcap.

In between the Macs' two matches on the day, Lehman took down Washington Adventist by a three-set score of 25-19, 25-9 and 25-22.

Match 1: Lehman 3 (25, 25, 26), Yeshiva 0 (18, 21, 24)

Senior outside hitter Elchanan Margolis (Toronto, Ont.) led the Macs with 8.5 points on seven kills and three assisted blocks, while Lapson (five kills, three assisted blocks, one service ace) added 7.5 points of his own. Classmate Jared Rechnitz (Los Angeles, Calif.) put down five kills for the hosts, while freshman libero Jorge Dabah (Miami, Fla.) led YU's back row with 10 digs in his collegiate debut. Junior setter Adam Rhodes (Los Angeles, Calif.) contributed 19 assists in distributing the Maccabees attack.

The first set featured nine ties and seven lead changes early on, before the Lightning (2-0) used four straight points to pull away by an 18-13 count. Margolis's kill cut the hosts' deficit to 19-17, before Lehman rattled off six of the last seven points of the set to go up 1-0.

After trailing 2-0 the visitors went up 6-3 in the second set, and did not trail in the frame again. Three straight Lightning attack errors brought Yeshiva to within a 22-19 margin, but the teams essentially traded points the rest of the way.

Set three was the most competitive of the match, as the teams tied on 15 occasions and exchanged the lead seven times. Some tough serving by Lapson pushed the Macs in front 17-12, before Lehman scored seven of the next eight to go up, 19-18. Dabah's back-row attack knotted the set at 19-all, and the teams remained close the rest of the way into extra time. Once the set was tied at 24-24, a kill and service ace by the Lightning's Ben Francisco (match-highs of 15 kills, 13 digs) in succession closed out the match.

Match 2: Yeshiva 3 (20, 25, 17, 25, 15), Washington Adventist 2 (25, 17, 25, 18, 13)

Lapson hit .367 (12-1-30) and 14 points against WAU (0-2), while Margolis collected seven kills and a team-high 14 digs. Junior outside hitter Zach Baratz (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) contributed nine kills and three assisted blocks for the Macs (1-1), while Rechnitz (10 digs) finished just two kills shy of a double-double. Dabah collected double-figure digs in the back row for the second time on the day, passing successfully on 11 occasions.

The teams changed the lead five times and knotted the score up on seven occasions in the opening stanza, with YU holding a lead as late as 18-17 on a combo block by Lapson and Rechnitz. Rechnitz's kill tied things up at 19 three points later, before Washington Adventist ran off six of the last seven points of the set to go up by one.

The Maccabees and visiting Shock each took lead that they would never relinquish in sets two and three, respectively, setting the stage for set four with WAU up by a 2-1 count. In the fourth set, a 4-1 run by the hosts that included kills by Rechnitz, Lapson and Baratz pushed them in front by an 18-10 edge. The Shock pulled to within 23-18, before a pair of miscues by the visitors sent the match to a fifth and deciding set.

The fifth set featured many spurts, with Washington Adventist scoring the first three points of the match. A three-point stretch by YU knotted things up a 4-all, before the Shock countered with three straight markers of their own to go up 7-4. The latter point forced a Maccabees time out, and the hosts responded before the changeover with six straight points to go up 10-7. WAU was down 13-9 later on, before tying things up with four straight points. Yeshiva got the ball back after the Shock's subsequent serve was off the mark, before Baratz's kill ended a long rally to push the Macs into the win column.

Head coach Arnold Ross's YU squad takes to the road for the first time of the young season Thursday night, when they travel to Jamaica, Queens, N.Y., for an 8 p.m. first serve at York College.