Email: katelyno@upenn.edu
Phone: 215-898-9058

Katelyn O'Brien was hired in May of 2010 and recently completed her third season with the Quakers under head coach Colleen Fink. Working with the offensive unit, O'Brien's impact has been immediate at Penn.

"Katelyn brings a great perspective to coaching the offensive unit," said Fink, who coached O'Brien as a player at both Archbishop Carroll High School and Saint Joseph's. "She is passionate about scoring, innovative in her game plans, and clear and direct in her delivery. We are both eager to transform the Penn offense so it can be an Ivy League statistical leader. On a personal note, I am excited to continue working with her, because I trust her judgment and enjoy working with her day in and day out."

"I am extremely excited and honored to coach at the University of Pennsylvania and be part of its distinguished athletic and academic tradition," said O'Brien. "I believe the opportunities for Penn field hockey are endless, and look forward to the challenges of competing at the highest level."

Penn has improved each of the three years that O'Brien has been on staff, and in 2012 the Quakers finished with a 9-8 overall mark which was the program's first winning season since 2006. Penn was 3-4 in Ivy League play in 2012, its best conference record since 2008, and four women received All-Ivy recognition which was a program high since 2005.

Of particular note, Penn scored 42 goals in 2012, which tied the 1988 team for the most goals in a season. In 2011, O'Brien spearheaded an attack that scored in 15 straight games, one of the longest streaks in the nation at the time. Of the nine women who recorded a point in 2012, eight of them are scheduled to return for 2013. They will be joined by Alex Iqbal, who led Penn in scoring as a freshman in 2011 but missed the 2012 campaign due to injury.

O'Brien made the move to Penn with Fink from Haverford College. During her four-year stint at Haverford, O'Brien's main focus was with the offensive unit where she led individuals and the team to break program scoring, assist, and point records, while also improving their overall statistics to the top three in the conference in every offensive category.  In 2009, O'Brien helped lead the program to its first ever Centennial Conference playoff appearance and first playoff victory in program history.

O'Brien has experience running and working a number of field hockey camps, including Suburban Elite Field Hockey Camp at Haverford, as well as working event management for College Quest, a tournament for high school players to showcase their ability in front of college coaches.

A Havertown native, O'Brien played her college field hockey at Saint Joseph's, where she closed out her career fifth in program history with 28 goals and 66 points scored. She was a three-time All-Philadelphia honoree and All-Atlantic 10 first-team member. As a senior, O'Brien was named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association's All-Mid-Atlantic Region first-team, Atlantic 10 All-Championship Team, and was chosen to compete in the NFHCA North-South Senior All-Star Game. She graduated from Saint Joseph's in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in business marketing.