When she was 12 years old, junior Noel Keck shot a gun for the first time.

She was with her father, Bruce Keck, in the wilderness near their home in Milledgeville, Ga. From there, she was hooked.

Keck would go hunting with her father regularly, and joined the rifle team as a sophomore in high school. Although it has been nearly a decade, that first time shooting is still special to her.

“It was a .22 [caliber],” Keck said. “When I shot my first squirrel, it was a kind of a big accomplishment for me. I started hunting from then on. That was very hard on me at first, because I love animals, but it was just a fun sport. It was very challenging.”

Keck may not have known it then, but her talent for shooting would eventually lead her to N.C. State. Today, the junior is a co-captain on the rifle team.

Unimposing, polite and soft-spoken, few would guess Keck is a varsity athlete or that she is deadly accurate with both the smallbore and air rifles.

“They think it’s a joke. It doesn’t match my personality,” Keck said. “Your normal person wouldn’t think that girls could be good college shooters. Statistically, girls are much better shooters than guys. Girls are more thorough. A guy, all he’s worried about is what’s on the target.”

This season, the rifle team has needed Keck more than ever. Since the graduation of Jenna Matino in December, the team is down to just four members, the minimum required for competition. Coach Keith Miller said everyone has to perform well at every competition for the team to succeed.

“We knew from the beginning that we were basically going to be running a skeleton crew this year,” Miller said. “It’s not ideal, but it works out OK. Everybody knows that we’re counting on them every time.”

This season, Keck has exceeded expectations. As a freshman she had come as an expert with air rifle, but had no real experience with smallbore. She improved in both events that year, yet struggled at times with her specialty, air rifle, as a sophomore. Miller said Keck has risen above the struggles, and is stronger for it.

“With air-rifle she was really up and down,” Miller said. “That was really frustrating for her. I was really proud of her because she was frustrated by it, and she kept working hard. This year, she’s been up and down a little bit, but her scores overall have been higher. It’s paid off.”

Keck started her junior year off with a bang. In the Rifle team’s first match of the season at West Virginia, Keck set a personal record in smallbore with a score of 569.

The following match against the Citadel and Mercer, Keck again set a personal record. This time it was air-rifle with a score of 571. Keck credits her teammates when asked about her improvement.

“We’re shooting better, I think, because as a team we get along on our trips,” Keck said.

“We get along outside of matches and outside of practice. It’s really good when you have that closeness. We laugh pretty much the whole trip when we go to matches. It’s such a better atmosphere to shoot a competition when you have the fun involved.”

Keck and her teammates have had plenty of bonding time this year. Of the 10 events they’ve competed in so far, only one was held in Raleigh. Miller said with small numbers and lots of long road trips, the rifle team has become somewhat of a family.

“We’ve only had one home match this year. Our facility is one that a lot of the other teams don’t want to travel to. We have a lot of time in vans on long trips together. They get along pretty well,” Miller said.

“Every now and then, there are a few sparks, but generally they get along pretty well. These people that you know and are around all the time, you come to depend on them.”