labovitz's magical outing earns him acc offensive player of the week

Ishan Lamba

Staff Writer

September 21, 2021

BLACKSBURG — For the second time in his career, senior Jacob Labovitz earned ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors following his game-winning brace against rival Virginia.

Labovitz, who led the team last year with nine goals — more than double anyone else on the team — was the lifeblood of the Hokies’ offense. After earning a red card during the team’s NCAA tournament match vs. Seton Hall, he was ineligible to play in the team’s first two matches of the season.

In his first match of the season against UCF, he scored the go-ahead goal in Virginia Tech’s 2-1 victory. He followed it up with an assist in the next match against Seton Hall before being held point-less in the shutout loss to Duke.

In front of a record-breaking crowd at Thompson Field, Labovitz found the back of the net twice. After the scoreless first half, he broke through in the 47^th minute. Kyle McDowell took a free kick from just beyond the box and placed it well enough to allow Labovitz to get low and head it under goalie Holden Brown.

Virginia would tie it up in the 58^th minute and push the game all the way to double overtime.

Three minutes into the second overtime period, and a tie seeming imminent, Pol Monells would run up the far side of the field and deliver a perfect cross, in between two jumping Cavaliers, to Labovitz, who headed it in and sent the crowd into an absolute frenzy, giving the Hokies a 2-1 win on Friday night.

In his limited playing time, Labovitz already leads the team in points and is tied with Landon Ameres with most goals (3).