LATROBE, Pa. – The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference released its 2025-26 women's basketball preseason coaches' poll on Tuesday morning, with the Penn State Altoona women's basketball team being voted fourth by league coaches.

Penn State Behrend, which won the conference's regular season title last year, finished first in the poll. Mount Aloysius College came in second place, and defending AMCC champion La Roche University was third.

Penn State Altoona women's basketball went 13-14 overall last season, including a 9-7 mark in the AMCC that put the Lions in fourth place in the conference standings. Head coach Halee Hutchinson enters her sixth season at the helm of the program, which features 11 returning players from last year.

Named in the preseason poll as "Players to Watch" for the Lions this season were senior forward Avana Sayles (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) and senior guard/forward Jaidyn McCracken (Bellwood, PA/Bellwood-Antis).

Sayles was the AMCC's co-Defensive Player of the Year last season and also received first-team all-conference honors. She ranked second in the conference in field goals made (176) and defensive rebounds (167), third in total rebounds (238) and blocks (41), fourth in points (405), offensive rebounds (71), total rebounds per game (8.8), and steals (68), fifth in points per 40 minutes (20.3), and sixth in points per game (15.0).

McCracken was a third-team All-AMCC selection last year, when she ranked eighth in the conference in three-pointers made (46) and assists (68), 12th in points (297) and defensive rebounds (122), and 13th in field goals made (113).

Penn State Altoona women's basketball opens its 2025-26 schedule on the road this Friday, November 7, traveling to face non-conference opponent Eastern Mennonite University at 6:30 p.m.