University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Athletics

                From 2001-2005, Melissa Patterson-Yarkowski epitomized what it meant to be a student-athlete. On the court, Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski earned Honorable Menton All-American honors on Head Coach Jodi Gault’s Lady Cat basketball team and became the program’s initial First-Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American with her work in the classroom.
                After a standout career that saw her score nearly 1,500 points at Juniata Valley High School, Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski, who received an Academic-Leadership Scholarship, came to Pitt-Johnstown and played in 14 games as a true freshman, before seeing action in every game as a sophomore and averaging 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds on her way to helping the Lady Cats earn their 14^th appearance in the NCAA Regional Tournament in 2002-23.
                The native of Alexandria, Pa. joined Coach Gault’s starting lineup as a junior and finished as the team’s second-leading scorer (14.7 ppg.) and rebounder (5.3 rpg.) in helping to guide the Lady Cats to another NCAA Tournament appearance.  Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski was named Most Valuable Player at the Converse (S.C.) Tournament and secured a spot on the Mountain Cat All-Tournament Team.
                However, as a senior in 2004-05, Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski proved to be one of the top players in Division II basketball.  She ranked 10^th in the country in scoring at 22.3 points per game and 22^nd in steals per game at 3.4 and was named Independent Player of the Year and Honorable Mention All-American by Kodak, Daktronics, and Women’s Division II Bulletin.  Her 22.3 points per game are still tied with fellow Hall of Famer Denise Gallo for the Lady Cat Single-Season Scoring Record.  Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski led or tied for the team lead in scoring 22 times and scored 20 or more points 19 times, including a career-high 38 points against Shepherd (WV) University on Feb. 21, 2005.
                Along with the stellar season on the court in 2004-05, Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski was the first women’s basketball player to be named First-Team Academic All-American by ESPN the Magazine.
                She finished her career ranked 16^th and currently ranks 22^nd on the Lady Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,196 points.
                After receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Information Systems and Managerial Accounting and a NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship in 2005, Ms. Yarkowski spent the 2005-06 season as an assistant coach on Coach Gault’s staff before beginning her professional career.
                Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski, also a member of the Pitt-Johnstown women’s track and field team, earned a Master’s of Business Degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business in 2010.
                As a professional, she worked at the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Hillman Cancer Center for over 18 years, most recently as the Associate Director of Clinical Research Finance.
                In 2024 Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski joined the staff at New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to conduct clinical trials to study new treatments and therapies for Cancer patients that will hopefully one day lead to a cure!
                Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski, also a volunteer for the Monroeville Baseball and softball Association (MBSA), and her husband Anthony, a former Mountain Cat baseball player, and their children Garrett and Addison reside in Monroeville.
                “I am honored to be inducted into the UPJ Hall of Fame and join an accomplished and talented group of men and women,” Ms. Patterson-Yarkowski said.  “I will be forever grateful to my coaches for giving me the opportunity to be part of the Lady Cat Women’s Basketball program, and for the lifelong lessons and intangibles they taught me while playing a sport that I love.”