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Rain delays aren’t just for outdoor sports anymore. The University of Tennessee’s volleyball match was suspended twice due to rain leaking through the Stokely Athletics Center roof Wednesday night.

Officials stopped play during the fourth game of Tennessee’s 28-30, 32-30, 30-19 and 30-26 loss to Kentucky (21-9, 12-7 SEC) in the Lady Vols’ final SEC home match of the season.

A trash can was placed near the middle of the court to catch the water, but when it became clear the rain was not going to let up, the match was moved to another spot on the hardwood. During the delay, which lasted one hour, players and managers moved the net and placed black electrical tape on the floor to serve as out-of-bounds markers.

Before the match, Tennessee honored seniors Yuliya Stoyanova and Joselyn Johnson. Stoyanova, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Bulgaria, finished the match third among Lady Vols with 13 kills. The left-hander entered the season third on Tennessee’s all-time list averaging 3.75 kills per game.

“She was on pace to break our kills record which is a pretty incredible feat,” Tennessee coach Rob Patrick said. “Whoever owns their school’s kills record is a great player, period. But not only was she going to be able to do that, but she would’ve been in there with digs … she’s in there on blocks. She’s just an all-around great player.”

This season has been difficult for Stoyanova however, as she has spent much of the year recovering from a torn ACL sustained with five games remaining in 2006. Stoyanova played in 69 of the Lady Vols’ 105 games this year, but Patrick said that is a major accomplishment considering a torn ACL typically takes one year to fully recover.

“She worked her tail off in the offseason to come back and that tells you a little bit about what she’s about,” Patrick said.

Stoyanova’s absence has been evident for Tennessee (10-17, 5-14). After appearances in the NCAA tournament during Stoyanova’s first three years, the Lady Vols will finish with its first losing season since 1997.

“It was a little frustrating watching our team lose to teams which I don’t think we were supposed to be losing to at all,” Stoyanova said. “This team has a lot, a lot of talent which we didn’t get to show so much this year.”

Without Stoyanova, Patrick has had to lean on his young core of players. The Lady Vols top four leaders in kills are freshmen or sophomores and second-year player Jena Berg leads the team in assists.

“You can never ever replace experience playing in matches,” Patrick said. “(Stoyanova) is basically the only upperclassman that’s out on the court and everybody else is freshman and sophomores.”

“That’s going to pay off huge, huge dividends in the future.”

Johnson, a middle blocker, has nine kills in 14 games this season. Sophomore Leah Hinkey added a career-high 16 kills for Tennessee.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.