Ruth Waters is thrilled about playing basketball at the collegiate level.

The oldest daughter of Shelly and Manteca Fire Chief Kirk Waters, she signed on the dotted line Thursday to play at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

“Financially, (Stevens) was my best option,” said Ruth Waters, who led Ripon High to an 11-1 mark in the Trans Valley League this past year, 23-5 overall while her team made it as far as the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 playoffs.

She’s looking forward to playing point guard for the NCAA Division III Ducks, who went 14-13 last year and 8-6 in the Empire 8 conference.

Waters, who also earned valedictorian honor for the RHS Class of 2013, will attend Stevens on a full-ride academic scholarship. She’s the recipient of the Ann P. Neupauer Scholarship, which, according to her father, covers full tuition plus either an annual stipend to cover expenses or paid tuition for a post graduate degree.

Ruth Waters’ plan is to major in Civil Engineering.

She fell in love with the campus during her recent visit, describing the dorms located along shores of the Hudson River as providing a panoramic view of the New York City skyline.

Waters had offers from other colleges to play basketball, including Southern Virginia University, Brigham Young, Washington University, Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hulman, Menlo, William Jessup, Occidental, UC Santa Cruz, and Cal Tech.

She was also recruited by Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, UC San Diego, John Hopkins, Utah Valley, University of Chicago, Naval Academy, and New York University.

Her top two choices were BYU and UCLA.

Meanwhile, George Contente, her coach at Ripon High for the past three years, said Waters is “everything you want in a player.”

He added: “She’s hard working and a leader by example – when you’re down, you can always count on Ruth to pick you up.”

Contente watched Ruth Waters grow from a sophomore to a polished player during her junior and senior years.

She was twice named the team captain and led the Indians this past campaign in scoring. Waters averaged 13.8 points while tallying 358 points.

She added that playing college basketball will be her dream coming true.