LATROBE, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona softball team was voted into second place in the 2026 edition of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference's Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was announced on Thursday morning.

Defending AMCC champion Pitt-Greensburg was voted first in the poll, while Penn State Altoona and Penn State Behrend shared second place.

The Lions softball team went 22-16 last season, including going 10-6 within the AMCC. Penn State Altoona earned the number one seed in the conference postseason tournament and reached the AMCC title game, ultimately falling to champion Pitt-Greensburg. This year, head coach Bill Graham enters his fifth season with the program and will look to help his team make another deep playoff run.

Named as Players to Watch in the poll for Penn State Altoona were senior shortstop Karli Storm (Chest Springs, PA/Cambria Heights) and junior right-handed pitcher Josselyn Nau (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte).

Last season, Storm led all AMCC hitters in walks drawn (29) while also ranking second in on-base percentage (.519), eighth in batting average (.382), 16th in hits (39), 20th in runs batted in (20), 22nd in runs scored (22), 23rd in triples (1), 24th in slugging percentage (.451), 25th in total bases (46), and 37th in doubles (5).

Nau was a second-team All-AMCC selection last spring, when she ranked first in the league in starts (20), wins (13), and complete games (19), second in shutouts (3), innings pitched (132 1/3), and earned run average (2.70), fifth in appearances (22) and saves (1), sixth in strikeouts (68) and batting average against (.289), and ninth in strikeouts per game (3.6). She was also a three-time AMCC Pitcher of the Week.

Penn State Altoona softball is scheduled to get its 2026 season underway on the road Monday, February 23, when it will travel to take on non-conference opponent Waynesburg University in a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.