INDIANAPOLIS – Drury University women’s soccer student-athlete Kaitlin Knetzke and Missouri S&T men’s cross country/track and field student-athlete Samuel Patterson have earned the 2024 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Postgraduate Scholarships, it was announced by the Conference office Thursday.
The GLVC Postgraduate Scholarship is awarded to one male and one female each year in the amount of $2,500 each to be used in the first year of post-graduate enrollment at the institution of their choice.
Knetzke, the 2023 GLVC Goalkeeper of the Year, will continue her academic career next year in University of Missouri-Kansas City’s law program, as she takes the next step toward becoming a defense attorney. In her five-year career at Drury, the Ozark, Mo., native racked up numerous awards, including Second Team All-Midwest Region (2023), First Team All-GLVC (2023), First Team All-Midwest Region (2022), Second Team All-GLVC (2021), as well as six GLVC Defensive Player of the Week selections. Knetzke led NCAA Division II in 2021 for shutouts (14), along with holding multiple school records for fewest goals allowed in a season (9), lowest goals against average (0.53), and career shutouts (43). Drury head women’s soccer coach Justin Olson raved about Knetzke’s leadership, work ethic, and contagious effort on the field.
In the classroom, Knetzke finished with a 3.72 GPA while double majoring in criminology and political science. She made the Dean’s List seven times, was named Academic All-GLVC five times, and Academic All-District twice, and also won the 2023 Dr. Edsel Matthews Outstanding NCAA Female Student-Athlete of the Year award. Her work outside of the classroom was equally impressive, assisting youth soccer players with disabilities through the TOPSoccer program for four years and serving as a volunteer assistant coach for high school goalkeepers during the 2022 season. At a professional level, Knetzke started at Neale and Newman Law Firm as a runner in January 2023 before moving up to her current position as a legal assistant in August 2023.
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Patterson has competed three seasons on both the Miners cross country and track and field teams, racing at D-II Midwest Cross Country Regionals three times and helping Missouri S&T win two league track and field titles. Prior to S&T, he was the NJCAA D-III Region 10 Cross Country Champion and Runner of the Year, along with earning All-America status and NJCAA D-III National Runner of the Week at Sandhills Community College. S&T head cross country coach Mary Duerbeck noted Patterson’s willingness to help whenever needed and his impressive ability to balance athletics, academics, work responsibilities, and family/community involvement.
Majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in mathematics, Patterson was named to the Academic All-GLVC team in 2021 and carries a 3.7 GPA into his final semester as an undergraduate. He will remain at S&T to pursue his Master’s in aerospace engineering, while competing one more season in cross country and track and field with his additional year of eligibility. The senior already holds Associate degrees in science and engineering, has made the Dean’s List three times, finished runner-up in the S&T Future Research Pioneers Program, and was recognized across the university for his research in electrostatic sieving through NASA’s Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) project. Outside the classroom, Patterson serves as the initiate officer for the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, along with being involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and SAAC Make-A-Wish. Additionally, the Washington, Mo., native has been involved with multiple undergraduate research projects, with his most recent endeavor involving research of “MR and MRS SATs” which are a short, tethered pair of spacecrafts that perform close proximity operations. Patterson hopes to work for an aerospace defense company’s advanced research/experimental division following graduation.
In order to qualify for consideration, the nominee must graduate by the end of the academic season – or by the end of the summer – of the application year, must have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 (on a 4.0 grading scale), have competed in a GLVC-sponsored sport for at least two years, and be a member of a team in the year the scholarship is awarded. Each league member may nominate one male and one female from their respective institution.