Kuranda Ruggiero asks if she could be interviewed for this story before practicing with her club volleyball team. She arrived early and had some free time to talk.

Ruggiero, a Griswold High School senior setter, plays for USA New York based out of Suffern, N.Y.

It’s over a three-hour drive one way to practice and Ruggiero makes the trip a few times a week. She’ll generally get home around 12:45 a.m. and be up by 6 to get ready for school.

“I was at a club tournament at Mohegan Sun (last May) playing for a different team,” Ruggiero said. “I had seen USA New York play and I had seen their coaching and I knew that I wanted to switch to that club. So I walked up to one of the coaches and introduced myself and said I would like to play for them.

“I realized that it would give me so many opportunities (playing for USA New York) and the entire reason I wanted to play for them was because I knew that I had the best chance to go D-I (Division I in college) if I played for them, and that was something that I wanted to do. It’s entirely for my future.”

Oh, yeah. Ruggiero is headed to West Point in June and will play for Army.

Ruggiero is a rare breed. Her relentless drive and commitment to her goals are what helped her excel this past season for the Wolverines. In doing so, she made herself The Day’s 2022 All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year.

“She’s a highly motivated kid,” Griswold coach Jamie Bruno said. “She’s got a good personality. We can joke around a lot. I personally think one of the biggest different things about her is we talk a lot about volleyball. She’s someone that knows the game at a high level. I don’t have that many kids that played much volleyball outside of school.

“Her knowledge and understanding of the game is a lot higher than probably most kids I’ve had.”

The Wolverines enjoyed one of the better years in program history as they finished the regular season unbeaten (19-0) and won the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II regular-season title. They advanced to the CIAC Class S semifinals before losing in five games to eventual champion East Hampton.

“It was a lot of fun,” Ruggiero said. “The regular season surpassed my expectations.”

Ruggiero had 567 assists, 226 digs, 94 kills and 69 aces this season. She holds the school record for career assists (1,106) and earned first team honors to the All-ECC Division II team and Connecticut High School Coaches’ Association Class S team this season and last. She was also the MVP at this year’s CHSCA Senior All-Star Game.

“She just knows the game at a high level and just anticipates things so well,” Bruno said. “You can just count on her in so many different ways. She has great hands. She’ll take a horrible pass and just make it into a good set. She’s also a good defender and a good server, too.

“(She’s) definitely the strongest all-around player that I’ve ever coached.”

Ruggiero comes from a volleyball family. Her mother, Shelley, played at Valley Regional and UMass and the two would pass the ball around when Kuranda was younger.

Dan, Kuranda’s father, was in the Army but he wasn’t the reason she decided to play there.

“I had never considered it,” Kuranda Ruggiero said. “I took a visit during the summer and stayed in the hotel on campus. At 6 or 7 a.m. we were woken up by (the cadets) doing drills outside, so that was cool to see. I also got to see what the day in the life was for a cadet athlete there and met a bunch of people that I would be interacting with on a daily basis.

“I realized this is an awesome school. Its opportunities for students there is unlike any other. And then (there’s) the ability to play volleyball there, too.”

Ruggiero wants to get involved in military intelligence and international relations.

Again, she’s driven and knows what she wants.

“(I’ll) do five years active duty,” Ruggiero said. “You’re given a job as soon as you get out and you’re able to contribute directly to something as soon as you graduate.”

n.griffen@theday.com

The Day’s 2022 All-Area Volleyball Team

Player of the Year — Kuranda Ruggiero (Griswold)

Skylar Bell (East Lyme)

Annalyn Cahill (Fitch)

Marina Colonis (Waterford)

Emerson Lane (Waterford)

Kiera Stewart (Bacon Academy)

Kassidy LaTour (Lyman Memorial)