DAHLONEGA – With the 2025 portion of the No. 19 University of North Georgia (UNG) rifle season underway, the Nighthawks are set to host their second and final home contest of the year on Sunday, Jan. 26 against No. 3 Kentucky.

With that, head coach Tori Kostecki sat down with UNG Director of Athletic Communications Brendan Schabath to discuss her team's rapid ascension to national prominence in recent years. 

With only 36 universities across the country participating in rifle at the NCAA level, the rifle program is uniquely the only program of UNG's 13 athletic teams that competes at the Division I level. Kostecki shares the nuances, challenges and benefits of that fact during her conversation.

She also discusses her very own and rather unusual path to coaching in which she became the head coach of the rifle program in the same year in which she graduated from being a shooter in the program in 2011. 

Kostecki also reveres the history and tradition of one of the oldest student organizations on campus and reflects on how the history of the rifle program has changed and shaped her team into what it is today. 

All that and more is available in the latest edition of The Hawks Nest.