HAMBURG, N.Y. – The Allegheny Mountain College Conference released the 2024 Softball All-Conference Teams and Individual Award Winners today, and the Hilbert Hawks placed two players on the 33-women roster.

Junior 3B Samantha Heppel and freshman 1B/P Alana Yadov were named to the Third Team after helping propel the Hawks back to the postseason tournament after going win-less in 2023.

The 2024 Championships, Penn State Behrend, dominated the individual awards while also placing six of their seven All-Conference selections on the First Team. Meghan Petitte was named the Player of the Year, Abby Tingley was named the Pitcher of the Year and their coach, Ashley Gruber was named the Coach of the Year.  Pitt-Bradford's Sara Stroup broke up the Behrend streak by grabbing the Newcomer of the Year award.

Samantha Heppel (Angola, NY/Home Schooled | Jamestown CC | Erie CC) found herself a home this spring.  She was the only Hawks to start all 34 games and most of the starts at the hot corner.  She finished the year with 31 hits, a pair of doubles, one triple and a home run off a .352 batting average.  Heppel scored 20 runs, covered 38 total bases, earned 10 walks and led the Hawks with .414 on base percentage. Heppel was third on the team defensively with 28 assists and led with three double plays turned.

Alana Yadov (Angleton, TX/Angleton) was another key member which lifted the Hawks to success this year.  She spent quality time at 1b when not pitching.  She was a very dependable player in both positions and responded often at the plate or in the circle. She started 33 games, earned 31 hits, six doubles, one triple and a pair of home runs. Yadov led with .870 OPS and .484 slugging percentage and finished the year with a .333 batting average. The left handed pitcher also made 13 starts in the circle, went 4-5 on the season and tossed 70.1 innings (five complete games).  She struck out 68, allowed 94 hits and 51 earned runs with a 5.08 ERA and .311 opponent batting average.

The 2024 Softball team, a preseason pick to finish 9th after going 0-30 in 2023, turned up the heat this spring and established a new Win/Loss record.  Head coach Dan Opera guided the Hawks to a regular season 14-16 overall record and captured the program's first postseason appearances since the 2018 season after their 8-10 AMCC record earned the No. 6 seed.  The Hawks opened the double elimination tournament with back-to-back upset wins over the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds which then established a new single season win record (16) and gave the Hawks their first postseason win in program history.

Kailey Stolowski and Alana Yadov were named to the 2024 AMCC All-Tournament team.