DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Nicolina McCall is usually pretty modest about her play for Newport Harbor High.

McCall, a junior on the girls’ water polo team, said she hadn’t been playing well for most of the title game of the Irvine Southern California Championships, against rival Corona del Mar on Feb. 2 at Irvine High. This was how she felt even if, heading into overtime, McCall had a goal, an assist and three steals.

But the Sailors’ stakes were raised for a number of reasons. A win would give Newport Harbor its first tournament win of the season, and also avenge a loss to the Sea Kings in the title game of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. It would also likely secure the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs, which begin Thursday.

So McCall did the thing she’s done more than any other Newport Harbor player this year: she scored a goal. Her second goal of the game came from set on a nice pass from sophomore Kaleigh Gilchrist. The strike, with 1:23 left in the first overtime period, gave the Sailors the decisive goal in their 3-2 win.

“I was so relieved,” McCall said. “I didn’t think I’d been playing well the whole game, and it was a six-on-five. We set up and I was open, and I was like, ‘Kaleigh, ball!’ Kaleigh’s really good at making perfect passes, so it worked really well. I just got lucky with the shot.”

It’s hard to just credit luck, though, for why the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week leads Newport Harbor with 47 goals. McCall has scored at least one goal in 25 of the Sailors’ 27 games. She’s also third on the team with 48 steals, just behind Gilchrist and Kate Klippert, who have 50 each.

Sailors Coach Bill Barnett said he knew the transfer from Rosary High had the skills to make an impact.

“She’s extremely crafty, both on offensive and defense,” Barnett said. “She has a lot of game sense. She understands where to be at the right time. I knew she would be a really good offensive player.”

At times one might get the sense that McCall, who is better known among the team as “Nina,” is just happy to fit in. She’s always had a lot of talent, ever since she started playing water polo at age 7. Her freshman year at Rosary, she scored 85 goals and was a second-team All-Serra League selection.

Older sister Rebecca, who now plays at USC, was a senior on that 2006 team and led Orange County with 127 goals. Another older sister, Amber, who now plays at Golden West College, was also on the team.

“That was one of my favorite moments, playing with my sisters,” Nicolina McCall said. “We just read each other really well in the pool. I was pretty good at stealing the ball and [Rebecca] would just counter. It was a thing we had.”

Older brother Adam has also played at USC, as did older sister Jenn before becoming a water polo referee. Nicolina’s one younger sibling, Colleen, is a sophomore at Newport Harbor.

Her father, Mike, also played polo at USC. Her mother, Liz, was a swimmer at San Diego State.

“I grew up around it, in it, for it,” Nicolina McCall said with a laugh. “My mom always told me that when I was little, all I wanted to do was swim. That’s what my family was doing. All I wanted to do was be a part of my family and do what they wanted to do. When water polo came into the picture, I just really wanted to play water polo.”

McCall transferred from Rosary to Newport Harbor about a year ago, not playing her sophomore year at either school. She said there were some differences with the coaching staff at Rosary, plus it was a long commute from her Huntington Beach home to Fullerton.

The family moved to Newport Beach and McCall enrolled at Newport Harbor midway through her sophomore year, but Barnett didn’t play her as the Sailors made a run to the Division I semifinals.

“It wasn’t really a hard decision,” Barnett said. “She hadn’t played with the girls before. She was only a sophomore. She still had a lot of time to play and do well.”

McCall would do just that, fitting in well. She knew then-senior Sarah Roberts and current senior Jessica Robinson from USA Water Polo Southern Pacific zone tryouts.

“Sarah helped me be part of the team,” said McCall of last year’s Newport-Mesa Player of the Year, now a freshman playing at the University of Michigan. “She always helped me in the weight room and with swim sets. And the girls just grew on me. We all became good friends.”

And now, McCall has emerged as the deep Sailors’ leading goal scorer, providing a presence at set just like Roberts did last year for the Tars. She is also improving her defense.

A difference? Roberts is 5-foot-11. McCall is considerably smaller, at 5-7.

“Everyone says I’m too small to play set,” McCall said. “Colleges will be like, ‘She’s too small.’ But Coach [Barnett] always tells us to just get your hips into the girl and try to snap your hips really hard and get out. You just have to have strong legs, I guess ... If you want the goal, you’ll get the goal. If you want something, you’ll get it if you try hard enough.”

McCall added that she’s not afraid to make mistakes, which is important in a fast-moving sport like water polo. And, with as well as she has fit in with the team, someone who didn’t know would probably think she’d been at Newport Harbor her whole high school career.

“She loves to play the game,” Barnett said. “She’s always happy.”

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