A Killer in Black : Sue Darcey Leads CSUN’s Volleyball Team in Attacking Herself as Much as Opponents--and in Looking Likeliest to Ride a Harley

Her affinity for black clothes, including a pair of leather boots, gives her a rough, hard-bitten look. It has even been suggested, much to her consternation, that she dresses like a biker.

But, fortunately for opponents of the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team, Sue Darcey doesn’t wear black on the court.

At 6-foot-4, with broad shoulders and hips, she’s already plenty intimidating in red and white.

The sophomore transfer from the University of Washington is the No. 1 hitter for the No. 1-ranked Lady Matadors (5-0), who meet No. 2 UC Riverside (6-0) tonight at Riverside in a battle for first place in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

In Darcey’s case, though, what you see is not always what you get.

Her coaches say she’s a delight to work with, fun to coach. Friends say there’s not a mean bone in her body. They describe her as a sweet, sensitive person.

This is an intimidator?

Darcey, 21, says intimidation is the furthest thing from her mind.

She wears black a lot, she said, “but I don’t wear it to look tough. I just like the color. . . .

“People form opinions of me that I’m mean or tough or not nice because I’m tall. I think in a lot of people’s minds, I don’t look feminine, so I must be tough.

“And that’s not true.”

Darcey, in fact, is friendly and outgoing. When talking about her value to the CSUN volleyball team, she is self-effacing.

How does she assess her performance this season?

“I guess I’m doing OK,” she said, looking almost sheepish in shorts and a “Purple Reign” T-shirt.

“I think her own image of herself as a volleyball player is not nearly as great as the result,” said CSUN Coach Walt Ker.

Ker estimates that, by design, about 40% of Angela Brinton’s sets are directed toward Darcey, who leads the team in kills and has been successful on more than 30% of her attempts. Ker calls her “by far our most dominant attacker.”

But Darcey’s game is somewhat one-dimensional. She is substituted out of the back row, and that bothers her--not because she believes she shouldn’t be, but because she knows it’s the right move.

She doesn’t move well laterally, and lacks strong passing and defensive skills.

Improving has been difficult from a mental standpoint, she said, “because I feel like everybody else is so much better and I just stink at it.

“I want to get to the point where Walt can feel comfortable and everyone else can feel comfortable with me in the back row.”

For the time being, she’ll continue to be an ominous presence at the net, as she has been almost from the time she started playing volleyball as a gangly sophomore at Chatsworth High.

“I was pretty lame,” Darcey said of her introduction to the game, which came about at the suggestion of her next-door neighbor, who also played for the Chancellors.

Her coach at Chatsworth, Dave Rubio, said she was a raw talent, inconsistent but intimidating nonetheless simply because of her size.

Greg Giovanazzi, at the time an assistant coach at UCLA, spotted her at a camp and recommended her to Washington Coach Steve Suttich, who offered her a full scholarship after her senior year.

Darcey gladly accepted, started as a freshman--she was No. 2 in kills in the Northern Pacific Athletic Conference in 1983--and enjoyed everything about the school.

But Suttich resigned at the end of the season, and Darcey said she never felt welcome by his replacement, Lindy Vivas.

“It didn’t seem like the place I was supposed to be or really wanted to be,” she said.

Said Vivas: “I think she was going through a period in her life when she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do and where she wanted to be.”

Darcey stayed at Washington for another year, and even when she enrolled at CSUN in the spring of 1985, she did so only to retain her eligibility in case she might want to return to Seattle.

But when she visited Washington last fall, she again felt unwelcome. She kept her job at a record store until last January, when she again enrolled at CSUN, this time to see if she might want to play for Ker and the Lady Matadors.

She played for CSUN during the U.S. Volleyball Assn. season and, in order to be eligible this fall, took 19 units of classes.

“It went well,” said Darcey, who had been recruited by Ker out of high school. “Taking 19 units was kind of brutal, but I passed everything with A’s and Bs.”

And so, here she is, a powerful replacement for three-time All-American Heather Hafner, who graduated last spring.

Riverside Coach Sue Gozansky said Darcey may be a more consistent hitter than Hafner, but says she doesn’t hit as hard.

“She hits a good ball and she hits deep,” Gozansky said, “but I was more afraid of having a hole in the block and having Heather nail it through. I think we have a better chance of picking it up even if (Darcey) hits over the block. She doesn’t hit straight down and she doesn’t hit as hard as some hitters.”

Nevertheless, Gozansky said her team will try to keep the ball away from Darcey tonight.

Good idea, Ker said.

Asked about Gozansky’s comments, Ker laughed and said: “I’ll bet you a dollar that if you went into the gymnasium and turned your back to our 12 attackers, you could tell when Sue was hitting just by listening. I know because I’ve had it happen to me. When the girls are out warming up for a match, I’ll hear this crack. I’ll look up and, sure enough, it’s Sue every time. She hits an extremely heavy ball.”

As well as she hits now, though, she’ll get even better, Ker said. She should improve in terms of adjusting to poor sets and attacking specific areas, he said.

“She’s so physically superior,” Ker said, “that if she picks the right spot to attack on every given set, there’s no way anybody’s going to stop her.”

Now that would be intimidating.