Former Richmond Hill soccer standout Sarah Hungerford made her case as to why she should be a Peach Belt Conference all-conference repeat selection when she pulled off the second hat trick of her career to lead Columbus State to a 4-0 win over USC-Beaufort last week.

For her effort the 5-foot-1 Hungerford was named the PBC Player of the Week as she helped the Cougars (15-0-1) remain unbeaten going into Wednesday night’s final regular season game at the University of Montevallo. In an earlier game last week she had both of CSU's goals in a 2-1 win over Lander which enabled the Cougars to finish conference play with a 9-0 record.

Columbus State is ranked No. 2 nationally in NCAA DII women’s soccer and will open defense of its Peach Belt championship as the No. 1 seed Saturday at 7 p.m. when it hosts USC-Beaufort in the opening round of the conference tournament.

Regardless of the outcome of the conference tournament the Cougars are assured of no less than an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Two years ago in Hungerford’s freshman season CSU advanced to the Final Four where it lost to Western Washington, 2-1, in the semifinals. Last year it was upset in the second round by Lenoir-Rhyne in a shootout after ending regulation play tied at 2-2.

Hungerford was a second team NCAA All-Region pick last year while earning PBC and all-tournament honors. In her three years as a starter the Cougars have posted an overall record of 49-7-5 record going into Wednesday night’s game.

At Richmond Hill she played for Dorothy Biron-Vonglis for three years after playing for Steve Kollman as a freshman. The Wildcats were 49-15-1 during her four seasons and advanced to the Class 6A quarterfinals her senior year while winning the region championship.

Hungerford currently leads Columbus State in scoring with 23 points which is sixth-best in the conference, and her four game winning goals leads the conference. Her previous hat trick came against Clayton State during her freshman season.