O'Brien comes to the Mount after being the head coach at VCU for the last eight years. She was the inaugural head coach in VCU women's lacrosse and earned two trips to the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament in her tenure. She was named the Atlantic 10 Co-Coach of the Year in 2018 when the Rams went 5-4 in conference and ended the UMass' 61-game conference winning streak, a NCAA record. During her time at VCU, she had one player named to All-Atlantic 10 First Team, two players named to All-Atlantic 10 Second Team, three players on the All-Atlantic 10 Rookie Team, and three players on the All-Academic Team.
O’Brien spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins University prior to her time at VCU. She was in charge of the Blue Jays offense, which was ranked in the top-40 nationally in goals per game during her tenure. Along the way, Johns Hopkins racked up 43 wins in one of the toughest conferences in the country, the American Lacrosse Conference.
Prior to her time at Hopkins, O’Brien spent one year at Stanford, serving as the co-head coach and helped guide the Cardinals to a 12-8 record and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament Championship.
The Eldersburg, Md. native had a stellar four-year playing career at UMBC, where she was a four-year starter, two-time captain and earned Second Team All-America East honors twice. She finished her career with 86 goals and 56 assists for 142 points and, as a senior, led the team in assists (18) and points (44). Her 56 assists ranked fourth in school history when she graduated
