Two days after Chanteal Satele helped Saint Mary’s College to the brink of a volleyball breakthrough she was in the office of her coach asking for a release to come home to Hawaii.

“She told me it was time,” her mother, Lee Ann Satele, recalled. “She’s been the happiest kid on Earth since.”

That was two years ago, and two years after Satele graduated from Word of Life Academy and left her remarkable, remarkably close family.

With no scholarship offer from the University of Hawaii, the move made sense. But Satele away from her family was like a fish out of Hawaii’s warm salt water. She thrived athletically and academically, but barely kept afloat otherwise.

“It was really hard,” Chanteal says. “My family was missing. I didn’t have a church to go to. The coaches were really nice and my teammates helped me through, but it was tough.”

Coming home has not been without its challenges. She started every match last year in an all-conference season. She was the Rainbow Wahine’s starter on the right side this year until recently. The coaches, still painfully aware of what big teams did to them in last year’s postseason, began to work with a taller lineup. At just under 6 feet, Satele can struggle to slow opponents’ big left-side hitters.

Her live arm and exceptional power, disguised by a grace that is rare in the game, have served in valuable reserve lately. She admits it “sucks.” The only person who might feel as bad — other than the entire Satele ohana — is UH coach Dave Shoji.

The man who coached her mother calls Chanteal “probably one of the nicest girls I have ever coached” and believes her grace is a reflection of her personality.

“She’s a very reliable player,” Shoji added. “We’re 19-1. It’s not like she’s not doing a good job, she is. We’ve just got to project how we want to be in December. If we need to be bigger, then we need to work that new lineup because we will play somebody really big in the second round. We have to be ready.”

Satele promises she will be ready, no matter what comes the eighth-ranked Wahine’s way. All the Sateles promise that. Their faith knows no bounds.

“It definitely has not been the smoothest ride here,” Chanteal said. “It’s just real nice to have God there for you, knowing even if the whole state is mad at you because you are playing bad, God is proud of you. He brought me here for a reason. That’s what I tell myself every time I go out there.”

The Sateles have nurtured a family that is exceptionally athletic and even more loving. Chanteal’s parents and brothers brought her up in a protective cocoon. She grew into a powerful woman and graceful athlete, or is it the other way around?

“She was always graceful and I think that gracefulness can drive a coach nuts,” said her mother. “I truly believe it’s a result of (father) Alvis and her brothers raising her like a princess and an athlete at the same time. She dances a little hula and Samoan, but I think she was born with that gracefulness. … She possesses the grace of God.”

Her parents purposely neglected to tell their children of their UH exploits. Lee Ann was on the 1982 and ’83 NCAA championship teams. Alvis played in the Canadian Football League after an astonishing football career at UH.

“I didn’t know my dad was such a beast until people told me,” said Chanteal, who inherited his quiet, gracious personality.

Everett Pestana, Chanteal’s half-brother, is “the smartest one,” she said, and the most protective of his siblings. He is proud to be mechanically inclined and the maverick nonathlete.

AJ, the most methodical Satele, works with Everett at Pearl Harbor and played baseball at Hawaii-Hilo. “His role is to comfort me,” Chanteal said. “They’re all there for me, but he is the one always there when I need him, the most compassionate.”

Brashton played football at UH and, last season, was on the New York Jets’ practice squad. He is home now, training while he waits for the NFL to call, and pushing his sister in her final year.

“He comforts me, but it’s more of a push,” Chanteal said. “He’s not going to baby me. He’s the kolohe one of all of us, definitely the rascal of the family. Everyone has one, but we all love him.”

And then there is Liko, the “old soul” in the family and “the little comedian,” according to Chanteal. He is a year older and also a senior at UH, also with a shot at the NFL. But until then, he is here every moment for his sister, right down to giving teammate Marcus Malepeai the OK to date her last year. Liko admitted to his parents Malepeai was one of the few teammates who could have passed the Satele brothers’ strict family test and date their only sister.

What if they had said no?

“It’s impossible,” Chanteal claimed, “because Marcus is such a good guy.”

She is surrounded by them in a family where faith is the driving force.

“When the kids celebrate, we celebrate. When they hurt, we hurt,” Lee Ann Satele said. “Every day is different, so we call upon our God daily. Our children know to do the same. … It’s amazing how God works in our lives. He is our rock.”