COLUMBUS, Ga. - The Newberry College Lady Indians closed out the Columbus State Invitational with a 4-0 loss to the No. 4 University of Tampa Spartans on Sunday.

Tampa's Shelby Kuni recorded a hat-trick, going 3-for-4 in shots on goal on the afternoon.

Tampa (3-0-1) dominated play from the start as evidenced in the 17-2 shot differential. Jocelyn Charette got the scoring started with a goal in the 11th minute on an assist from Samantha Robinson. Kuni recorded her first two goals a little more than three minutes apart as she scored in the 16th and 19th minute. Charette assisted in the first goal and Kuni got a corner kick from Courtney Evans in her second goal. Tampa took a 3-0 lead into the half.

Newberry (2-2-0) continued to be stymied in the second half as they mustered only one shot attempt. Kuni got her hat-trick in the 52nd minute as Nicole Murphy assisted on the play.

Newberry head coach Juan Pablo Favero said the loss was a hard pill for the team to swallow.

"It was a tough loss, but I take full responsibility for not preparing my team well enough for team the caliber of Tampa," Favero said. "To the credit of Tampa, they took it to another level on Sunday. Obviously, it's not by coincidence that they're ranked fourth in the country."

Favero said while dropping to 2-2-0 early in the season can be tough on a team, his side could use this as motivation.

"We'll use this loss as a lesson to learn from and get better from here as we gear up for conference play," he said. "By scheduling the way we have with so many difficult opponents, our experiences against top-quality teams should help us in the games to come."

Newberry opens South Atlantic Conference play on Thursday, as the Lady Indians host the Mars Hill Lions wiht a 5 p.m. kickoff.