Ross’ number that matters:

Listen to Lexie Ross for a few minutes and she’ll give some valuable life lessons.

The Laguna Beach High senior girls’ water polo player is articulate, which might be expected of someone going to Stanford in the fall. She has a 4.5 grade-point average, good enough for valedictorian at some schools but she said her class rank is in the low-20s at Laguna Beach.

She couldn’t care less. Ross is not so big on numbers.

“I try not to get too into that stuff, because there’s so many things in life that are more important than some decimal on a report card,” Ross said. “If there’s one thing I learned with applying to Stanford, it’s that yeah grades are important, but it’s really the balance that makes everything. That’s really what makes life worth living, the balance.”

Throwing some other numbers out there, Ross, the only senior for the Breakers, had 38 goals, 25 assists and 27 steals headed into Wednesday’s final league game against Costa Mesa. Junior teammate Jessie Holechek leads Coach Ethan Damato’s club in all three of those categories, but that doesn’t really matter, either.

“We all are equals,” said Ross, a team captain. “In the scheme of things, it’s not goals scored that count, it’s not steals made or shots blocked. It’s how hard you’re working and, at the end of the day, who’s sitting next to you.

“Ethan’s trying to instill this superhero mentality. Everyone brings something different to the table. Those talents can be so diverse, but when they come together, it’s unstoppable.”

Plenty of high school athletes will say things like this, but you get the sense Ross actually believes it. The balance she strives for in her own life has also helped the Breakers (18-8), the defending CIF Southern Section Division II champions who play at Corona del Mar in their final regular-season game today. Laguna will again enter next week’s Division II playoffs as the top-seeded team.

It’s been an interesting journey for Ross, the lefty who moved with her family from the Bay Area in 1999 and began playing water polo in the fifth grade.

She played for Laguna’s age-group program before starting at El Toro-based SET as a freshman, and was part of that SET team that took first in the platinum division at last summer’s Junior Olympics.

She was also an alternate on last year’s USA Water Polo Junior training team, but has since pulled out of the Olympic development program.