Kirsten Brendel was arguably the first true “great” in the Penn women’s basketball program. A four-year letter winner and three-time team MVP, she was the first player in program history to earn Ivy League and Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year honors in 1990-91. 
 
Brendel was the first Quaker named first-team All-Ivy more than once (1989-90 and 1990-91). Brendel scored 1,656 points and grabbed 847 rebounds during her career - both of which were Penn records when she graduated - and she still holds the record for free throws made in a season (170 in 1990-91). Her 351 points scored in Ivy play in 1990-91 (25.1 ppg) remains third all-time in League history and her 41-point game against Bucknell on Jan. 3, 1991 remains the third-best scoring performance by an Ivy League player in the conference’s history.
 
Brendel was one of 16 women’s basketball standouts named to the Ivy League Silver Anniversary Honor Roll during the League’s celebration of 25 years of women’s athletics. She was inducted into the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
 
Brendel became interested in attending Penn thanks to a family friend, Cynthia Johnson Crowley, Class of 1952. Ms. Crowley, who passed away in January 2019, played basketball for the Quakers and remained a long-time supporter of the program – she created the Harschberger-Johnson-Brendel Prize for Loyalty, Leadership and Sportsmanship that is given annually. Brendel received the inaugural H-J-B award in 1991 and also received Penn’s Father’s Trophy as a senior, given annually to the top senior women’s scholar-athlete.
 
Brendel and her family traveled extensively as a child (including living in Tehran, Iran from 1975-78 prior to the family being evacuated at the time of the revolution) while her father worked at Bell Labs. She attributes her inspiration to play oversees after graduation to this experience and her parents. Brendel enjoyed a standout professional career in Australia (Sydney, Lithgow), Switzerland (Basel) and Germany (Heidenheim, Osnabrueck, and Leimen) until 2000.
 
Brendel graduated from Penn’s College of Arts & Sciences in 1991 with a BA in Economics and earned her MBA in International Business from Schiller University (Germany) in 1996. She is a dual-citizen of the US and Germany and began working for SAP AG in Germany while playing professional basketball.  After the conclusion of her professional playing career, she returned to the US to work for SAP America in Newton Square, Pa. and New York City.
 
Brendel is married to former Penn men’s basketball player Sean Dineen (W ‘91). Kirsten and Sean now reside in Wayne, PA with their three children, Tommy (9), Sammy (7) and Joey (6).  Kirsten is a stay at home mother, still plays pick-up basketball and tennis and enjoys coaching her children’s youth teams.