The Golden Hawks women's softball team opened its 2024 season with a home series against the visiting TMU Bold at the newly refurbished Waterloo Park diamonds, adjacent to the Waterloo campus.
 
The purple and gold got on the board early with graduate student Avery Hilpert leading off with an inside-the-park home run. Senior Brooke Cameron started in the circle for the home squad and struck out the side in the first inning. The battery combination of Cameron and Olivia Shaddick kept the Bold bats off balance, yielding just two hits while striking out five in four scoreless innings of work. Hayley Shackell closed the final frame in a 7-0 run-rule victory for the Golden Hawks. Amy Hughes, Maddy Halstead, and Brooklynn Graul had multiple hits.
 
The bats continued hot into the second game of the series as Laurier quickly jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the second inning. Freshman Lauren Artt got the start for the Golden Hawks and provided three innings of steady work. The Bold would mount a strong comeback in the 4th inning, scoring 7 runs to pull even, helped by a couple of Laurier errors.
 
The Golden Hawks responded in the top of the fifth inning with six runs to put the game out of reach. Hayley Shackell once again returned in a relief pitching role to preserve the second victory. The Laurier bats were very effective, counting 18 hits, including a five-for-five performance from Cameron and a four-for-five from Artt.
 
The second day of the home stand featured a matchup with defending OUS champion Toronto Varsity Blues. The Blues came into the series with a 3-1 record including a split with Guelph on Friday and a sweep of Waterloo on Sunday.
 
Game one began with the Blues taking an early 1-0 lead in the second but the Golden Hawks countered quickly in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Laurier would add two more in the third to move ahead. They would hold that lead until the 7th inning when an error gave Toronto an opportunity, which they capitalized on to jump ahead by two runs heading into the bottom of the final frame. Two quick outs would leave the Golden Hawks down to their last out when Maddy Halstead walked followed by back-to-back singles from first-years Ansa Mian and Lauren Artt who closed the gap to a single run. With runners at second and third, Olivia Salese would walk off the victory with a single up the middle, scoring two and a very exciting come-from-behind victory.
 
Game two was all Golden Hawks as they scored five runs in the top of the first paced by a second inside-the-park home run for Avery Hilpert. Hayley Shackell kept the Blues' bats quiet while the Laurier bats continued to be hot, adding 7 more runs in the third and four in the fourth inning to complete the sweep in a convincing 19-1 fashion. Brooklyn Graul drove in four runs and Emma Diegel scored three to move Laurier to 4-0 to begin the season.
 
Avery Hilpert picked up the Player of the Week honours from the OUS for her performance in the weekend contests.