Mary Baldwin University announced the addition of Sanders "Sunny" Gelnovatch as the new head coach for the Fighting Squirrels women's soccer program.

Gelnovatch is a 2020 graduate of Messiah College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management.  She then received her Masters of Education in Educational Leadership and College Student Affairs from Bloomsburg University in 2022.

A native of Albemarle County, Virginia, Gelnovatch joins MBU from NCAA Division II Lock Haven University, where she was the head coach for one season.  Prior to that, she was the top assistant at Alabama Huntsville, Bloomsburg and served an internship at the University of Virginia.

She has extensive experience in recruiting, on-field drill techniques and video software to study her team's advancement and opposing teams' tendencies.

"Mary Baldwin is fortunate to add a coach with the knowledge and experience of Sunny Gelnovatch,"  said Director of Athletics Tom Byrnes.  "The women's soccer program has a good foundation and has experienced success.  We're excited to see the program to continue to grow."

During her playing days at Messiah, she played in the NCAA Division III championship game twice, winning the crown in 2019.  The Falcons captured three conference championships during her playing career. 

A midfielder during her Messiah career, Gelnovatch earned several conference and national individual awards, including the 2016 MAC Commonwealth Rookie of the Year, three-time all-region and several first-team All-America awards in 2019.  She is still among the top 15 players in Messiah women's soccer history in career points (89), goals (31) and assists (27).

Gelnovatch takes over a program with nearly two dozen returning players from a team that qualified for the USA South Championship Tournament for the third-straight season.  The Fighting Squirrels have compiled a 26-25-6 record over the past three seasons.