NORTH BOSTON, N.Y. — The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) released its 2024 Softball Preseason Coaches’ Poll on Tuesday, Feb. 20, with the Penn State Altoona Lions predicted to finish third in the conference standings. Utility player Cameryn Feathers, of Martinsburg, was selected as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year.

Mount Aloysius College and Penn State Behrend tied for first place in the poll, after both teams finished atop the AMCC’s regular season standings last year with identical 12-2 records. Penn State Altoona, the defending AMCC champion, was voted into third place in the poll.

Feathers was chosen as the top position player in the AMCC heading into the 2024 season, as league coaches voted her as the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year. Last spring, Feathers was a first-team All-AMCC pick and was also a second-team National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III All-Region VII selection. Among all hitters in the AMCC, Feathers finished first in hits (53), total bases (85), batting average (.495), on-base percentage (.553), and slugging percentage (.794) while also being second in home runs (5), third in triples (4), fourth in runs scored (35) and stolen bases (10), fifth in runs batted in (30), and sixth in doubles (9) and walks (13).

Penn State Altoona finished the 2023 regular season in third place in the AMCC standings, compiling an 11-3 record that gave the team the number three seed in the conference postseason tournament. The Lions got hot in the playoffs, making a run that culminated in back-to-back wins over top seed Penn State Behrend to win the program’s third AMCC title. Penn State Altoona clinched a berth to compete in the Cleveland Region of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

This season, Penn State Altoona returns seven players from last year’s conference championship team. Head coach Bill Graham enters his third year at the helm of the program.

Highlighted in the preseason poll as “Players to Watch” for Penn State Altoona this season were Feathers and shortstop Karli Storm, of Chest Springs.

Storm was a second-team All-AMCC selection last season, ranking first in the conference in walks drawn (19), third in runs batted in (31), fifth in on-base percentage (.478), sixth in hits (45) and doubles (9), seventh in stolen bases (8), ninth in total bases (61), 11th in batting average (.388), 12th in slugging percentage (.526), and 15th in triples (2) and home runs (1).

Penn State Altoona softball opens its 2024 schedule in Florida, where the Lions will compete in 10 games in the Fort Myers-area Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic from March 6-11. After that, Penn State Altoona returns to Pennsylvania for its home opener on Thursday, March 14, against non-conference Grove City College at 3 p.m.