NORTH BOSTON, N.Y. – The Penn State Altoona softball team was voted into fourth place in the 2025 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was released by the league office on Thursday morning.

Penn State Behrend, the defending AMCC champion, was predicted to defend its title, as it was voted into the top spot on the poll. Pitt-Bradford took second place, and Mount Aloysius College rounded out the top three spots.

Penn State Altoona softball took fourth place in the AMCC's regular season standings last spring, when the Lions went 9-7 within the conference and 18-17 overall. Head coach Bill Graham, in his fourth year with the program, will lead an 18-player roster that is comprised of eight returners and 10 first-year student-athletes.

Named in the poll as "Players to Watch" for Penn State Altoona this season were senior middle infielder Alyssa Fisher (Lock Haven, PA/Central Mountain) and senior third baseman Hanna Lauck (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte).

Fisher was a second-team All-AMCC selection last season. Among all hitters in the conference, she ranked third in triples (5), fourth in hits (52) and doubles (11), fifth in runs scored (34), total bases (79), and slugging percentage (.622), seventh in home runs (2) and batting average (.409), and 14th in on-base percentage (.436).

Lauck earned first-team All-AMCC honors last spring. She finished fifth in the conference in home runs (3), sixth in batting average (.418), seventh in runs batted in (29), eighth in hits (46) and total bases (62), ninth in on-base percentage (.458), 11th in slugging percentage (.564), 19th in doubles (7), and 23rd in stolen bases (5).

Penn State Altoona softball begins its 2025 season on the road Monday, February 24, traveling west to play non-conference opponent Waynesburg University in a doubleheader beginning at 2:30 p.m.