HIGH SCHOOLS:

It’s safe to say that Newport Harbor High junior Nicolina McCall has a fairly good water polo pedigree.

Her father, Mike, played water polo at USC. So have her older brother, Adam, and older sisters Jenn and Rebecca. Another sister, Amber, plays for Golden West College and her younger sister Colleen is a sophomore at Newport Harbor.

“We’re all swimmers and water polo players,” Nicolina McCall said.

In the pool for the Sailors, however, her game is speaking for itself. A transfer from Rosary, McCall is leading Newport Harbor with 16 goals. She paced the Sailors with three goals in both their Holiday Cup semifinal loss against Dos Pueblos and the third-place win over CdM.

But it was somewhat of a frustrating start to her career at Newport Harbor. McCall transferred to the school late in last year’s girls’ water polo season, but Coach Bill Barnett elected not to possibly disrupt his team’s chemistry. He didn’t play her in last year’s Sailors playoff run to the CIF Southern Section Division I semifinals.

“It was hard, because I was on the lower team,” McCall said. “But the girls were all really nice; they all befriended me.”

She added that the intensity with which the Sailors practice was a big change from the Rosary program.

“The practices were the biggest difference ever,” McCall said. “We’re a swimming water polo team. We didn’t swim at Rosary, but now [at Newport] we swim so much. That was hard to transfer to, but I hung in there and stuck with it.”

 The Sailors (8-1) weren’t overly concerned after the semifinal loss to Dos Pueblos, their first setback of the year.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Coach Bill Barnett said. “It’s still very early in the season.”

Senior Jessica Robinson remembered that Foothill had its first — and only — loss of last year’s season in a Holiday Cup semifinal to the Sailors. The Knights then won their next 27 games, finishing 33-1 and capturing both the CIF Southern Section Division I and Masters Meet titles.

“I feel like everybody has to lose one game sometime in the season,” Robinson said. “It’s better to lose earlier on and build from that loss than lose later.”

 Reading has been fundamental for the Corona del Mar girls’ water polo team. Coach Aaron Chaney has had his girls reading the motivational book “The Mental Edge,” by Kenneth Baum. The Sea Kings have been required to read a chapter or two each week.

“We just read a chapter about visualization,” CdM junior Leslee Kaczmarek said. “When you prepare your mind mentally, it helps you perform better in the game. It’s really interesting to read all the ideas. They give you examples of how people have used this book and enhanced their performance levels and become more of a threat in their competition.”

 CdM senior Allison Peotter got her first game action of the season during the Holiday Cup. A three-year varsity player, Peotter had been out since February with a torn serratus interior (upper limb) muscle on her right side. The injury also limited Peotter, a talented backstroke swimmer, during last year’s swim season.

Peotter, the younger sister of former CdM boys’ goalie Brian Peotter, had two goals and four steals in CdM’s four tournament games.

 The Costa Mesa girls’ water polo team is headed north this week for some games. Coach Tim Postiff’s club will play at Holiday Cup champion Dos Pueblos of Goleta on Wednesday , before heading to the Arroyo Grande tournament the following two days.

The games should be good experience for the Mustangs (3-7), who don’t open Orange Coast League play until facing Sage Hill (6-3) on Jan. 16 at CdM.

 Sage Hill girls’ basketball coach Lou Silverman talks about wanting all his players to be threats, and the numbers appear to back him up.

Standout junior forward Tierney Danner is averaging 18.4 points per game for the Lightning (7-5). But Sage Hill is just 1-3 when Danner scores over 20 points.

The consistent forward has scored in double digits every game.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.