UMass Lowell Athletics

The UMass Lowell softball team enjoyed some of its best seasons in its history during the career of Kristen (Mahoney) Farrell, who starred from 2004-07. It was not a coincidence.

After a 26-25 season in Farrell's freshman year, the River Hawks went 91-55 over the next three seasons (.623), reached the NCAA Tournament twice and captured the 2007 Northeast-10 Tournament Championship.

UMass Lowell's magnificent run to the 2007 title and the NCAA Tournament East Region semifinal was largely due to Farrell, who enjoyed her best season as a senior.

With a 15-17 record two-thirds into the season, UMass Lowell rolled to nine wins in its final 12 games of the regular season

Needing to win the NE-10 Tournament to make the NCAAs, the River Hawks stormed to four straight victories – including a 4-2 win over No. 1/host Le Moyne (4-2) – in large part to Farrell, who won all four games and threw all but five innings. She was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player.

UMass Lowell cruised over Le Moyne (4-1) and Georgian Court (3-0) in the first two rounds of the NCAAs, but suffered consecutive 0-2 losses to finalists Bryant and C.W. Post to end the season.

"Kristen was the face of UMass Lowell softball when she was with us," said former head coach Harry Sauter, who served from 1995-2010. "From her first game in the circle for us, through our two visits to the NCAA's and the final NE-10 championship game, she was all that she could be.  She was the best pitcher UMass Lowell ever had and, she took it upon herself to convey that championship/leadership quality and style to the rest of the team."

Six years removed from the program, Farrell's name remains atop several career lists: victories (70), strikeouts (598), shutouts (25), complete games (77), innings pitched (673.0) and starts (101). Her marks of 207 strikeouts in 2007 and nine games with 10 or more strikeouts remain unthreatened.

"She was looked up to and admired by all: teammates, coaches, rival teams and umpires," Sauter added. "Coaches and umpires I see around the circuit still ask me about her when we meet to this day."

Farrell was consistently among the NE-10's statistical leaders and she was a three-time NE-10 All-Conference standout, including the NE-10 Pitcher of the Year in 2006.

Having graduated with a 3.5 cumulative grade point average in psychology and a 3.8 in achieving her master's degree of elementary education, Farrell was as gifted a student as she was a pitcher.

She was named to the NE-10 Softball All-Academic Team her sophomore through her senior year and was a finalist for UMass Lowell's Laurie Mann Award for Athlete of the Year (she was runner-up to 2012 Half of Fame inductee Nicole Plante Hunt, the 2007 NCAA Champion in the 10,000 meters).

Farrell was a leader among her peers and was involved in UMass Lowell's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), serving as the co-chair her senior year.

Farrell is a first grade teacher at the Memorial Elementary School in her native Burlington, Mass. She currently serves as the head coach of the BHS softball team, which she led to the Middlesex League championship in 2011 as well as the Middlesex League Freedom Division title in 2012 and 2013.

She was named the Spring Coach of the Year by the Woburn Daily Times Chronicle in 2011 and 2013 and the 2013 Lowell Sun Coach of the Year after leading BHS to the MIAA state title game both years.

Farrell lives in Methuen with her husband, Grant, who played hockey at UMass Lowell from 2004-06.