2003 and 2004. She graduated from Harvard cum laude in 2004 with a degree in government and was a four-time All-American selection and an Academic All-American. In her senior year, she was awarded the distinguished NCAA's Top VIII Award, for success on the ice, in the classroom, and in the community. Ruggiero was a three-time MVP for the Crimson. Ruggiero made several U.S. professional hockey "firsts" on January 28, 2005, when she played for the Tulsa Oilers in a Central Hockey League game against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. She was the first woman to actively play in a regular season professional hockey game in North America at a position other than goalie. In addition, since her brother Bill Ruggiero, was a goaltender for the Oilers, they were the first brother-sister combination to play professionally at the same time. She recorded an assist on the final goal of the game making her the only woman to score a point in a North American professional hockey game. Ruggiero was also credited with the game-winning goal in the shoot-out that won the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships for the United States against the Canadian national women's hockey team, winning the first gold medal ever for the United States at the world championship. At the 2005 Esso National Women's Championships, she was named the Best Defenseman for Group A. In December 2009, Ruggiero was named to her fourth Olympic hockey team. To prepare for the 2010 Olympics, she joined a group of NHL players in the summer of 2009 for workouts at Athletes' Performance in Carson, California. Her preparation relied less on powering through workouts and more on paying attention to detail. The training group included Chris Drury, Richard Park, and George Parros. On January 14, 2010, she was named as an alternate captain for the United States Olympic Hockey Team. In addition, at the Vancouver Olympics, she was elected as a Member of the IOC's Athletes Commission, giving her an eight-year term as a Member of the IOC. Ruggiero played for the now-defunct CWHL's Boston Blades. During the 2010–11 Boston Blades season, Ruggiero scored the game-winning goal on December 19, 2010, which snapped the Montreal Stars undefeated season. On December 28, 2011, Ruggiero announced her retirement via Twitter. As an IOC Member, Ruggiero presented the gold medals to the US Women's Soccer Team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the gold