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.