MORAGA, Calif. – After four years, over 100 victories, and numerous historical milestones with Academy of Art University Softball, Sonja Garnett has announced she will depart the program to become the head softball coach at NCAA Division I Saint Mary's College.

"I am so grateful for my time at Academy of Art and the student-athletes I had the opportunity to coach here," said Garnett. "I have been incredibly lucky to have such great assistants in Coach Alana Aweau and Coach Emily Montanez. I am proud of how the far the program has come, and am confident that we will continue to see ART U Softball do great things with this group of student-athletes. I will continue to follow the program and will forever be a fan. #OnThe30."

Garnett's first year at the helm of Academy of Art in 2015 saw the Urban Knights finish with their best record (28-26) in four years with a host of records broken. Among the various team milestones were the most doubles (84), total bases (619), and highest fielding percentage (.952) in program history. ART U also tied its record for student-athletes receiving All-PacWest honors to that point with senior Haily MacDonald on the All-PacWest First Team (along with Capital One Academic All-District Team and Daktronics All-West Region honors) in addition to Samantha Klune (Second Team), Brenna Mitchell (Third Team), and Nirana Singh (Third Team).

In 2016, Garnett guided the Urban Knights through one of the most challenging schedules the program has seen. ART U won six of its first seven conference games and later had one of its biggest highlights - breaking the program's home runs record in an upset of No. 16 California Baptist, the highest ranked team Academy of Art had faced since 2011. At the season's end, the Knights collected two All-PacWest Team honors with Jessica West (First Team) and Mitchell (Third Team), a program-record four DII Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athlete awards, and 10 Academic All-PacWest selections.

An influx of youth energized Academy of Art throughout its 2017 season. Highlights from a squad that would produce the most All-PacWest Team honorees in program history included the best collective single-season batting average (.315), six doubleheader sweeps, ART U's first two no-hitters against NCAA Division II opponents, and the Urban Knights' fourth time posting at least 25 victories. The team, who went 25-25 overall, collected a total of five PacWest weekly awards and put six players on the All-PacWest Team including freshman pitcher Hannah Rose Balke who tossed no-hitters against Notre Dame de Namur (Mar. 10) and versus Holy Names (Apr. 9).

Leading into what would be the winningest season Academy of Art Softball has ever seen, Garnett was named senior woman administrator in December 2017. Driven to significantly surpass the program wins record by a unifying theme known as "On The 30," ART U's 2018 highlights included two double-digit win streaks, victories over three ranked opponents (No. 15 CSUMB, No. 17 CUI, No. 13 SSU), the Urban Knights' first NCAA Tournament appearance, six All-Pacific West Conference Team honorees, and their first All-American in freshman pitcher Brooke Larsen. Academy of Art broke the program wins record by 11 with a 40-18 campaign in addition to several other single-season records including runs (266), hits (457), doubles (86), runs batted in (240), walks (163), fielding percentage (.958), earned run average (1.97), shutouts (16), innings pitched (387.0), and batting average against (.227). Garnett was named PacWest Coach of the Year and collected her milestone 100th victory at ART U along the way.