President Ransdell pats Athletics Director Wood Selig on the back after he announced his resignation Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, in the media room of Diddle Arena. Selig accepted the Athletics Director position at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., the town where he grew up. TANNER CURTIS/HERALD

Less than a month after receiving a new contract from Western, Athletics Director Wood Selig is going to receive another new contract.

This time from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

Selig officially made the announcement on Friday, saying that Old Dominion contacted him around the holidays, but the two parties really didn’t start talking until late January.

For Selig, Virginia is home.

“I don’t know if (Old Dominion is) a better fit,” Selig said. “But it’s certainly a very good fit and it becomes a great fit when you add family and the fact that I’m very familiar with the area and the region.”

President Gary Ransdell said people typically leave jobs for two reasons.

“One, for what some may perceive better, for whatever reason, whatever makes the grass greener. And people leave for very personal reasons,” Ransdell said.

Selig said his parents are moving back to Norfolk, Va., to live in a retirement community on the water. Selig said his children get to see their grandparents usually twice a year, but now could see them as often as twice a day.

But Selig said this isn’t all about his family.

“I would never just take a job for my family,” Selig said. “I love my family but I want to make sure I have a good professional situation as well. This was a job that very much reminded me of WKU.”

Ransdell said Western didn’t counter Old Dominion’s offer to Selig, and the two schools didn’t get into back and fourth negotiations.

“This move was not about money,” Selig said. “It was not about trying to majorly enhance my financial situation. I needed to make sure the move was going to be good move and that I wasn’t taking a step back. I did research. Norfolk is a 30 percent increase in living. Bowling Green is a pretty affordable place to live. I wanted to make sure that if we make a move that it did make financial sense and it did have some financial incentives.”

Plenty has happened under Selig’s watch since 1999.

Western was won 66 Sun Belt Conference championships and spent over $100 million in new construction and renovations to athletic facilities.

Selig was also a key member in Western’s transition from the Football Conference Subdivision to the Football Subdivision.

He said he doesn’t have one thing that he wants to be remembered for, but has regrets for things — like having to disband the men’s soccer team in 2007.

Volleyball Head Coach Travis Hudson was already at a head coach at Western when Selig was hired in 1999.

“It’s been a remarkable decade,” Hudson said. “The vision that they had in the beginning, I don’t know how many people were buying it at the time. It’s all happened so gradually over the course of time that I think if you stop and look back that the last decade, I think some unbelievable things have occurred.”

Former Western tennis player Katy Tinius was a member of the search committee that brought Selig to Western. Tinius is also the mother of current football player Casey Tinius and women’s soccer assistant coach Chris Tinius.

“He’s going to be hard to replace,” Tinius said. I know they’ll know find someone good. I just don’t know they’ll find someone as accessible or as easy to talk to and will give you straight-up answers. My whole family loves him.”

As for the next Athletic Director, Ransdell said he’s already made a few calls but wasn’t willing to say who those calls were made to. He said he expects to have someone hired within a month.

“I’m not saying that I’m going to find someone that has a WKU pedigree, but I’ve got to have someone that understands our traditions, our values and what we stand for as a university,” Ransdell said. “Finally, I’ve got to have chemistry.”

For more on Selig’s departure, read Tuesday’s Herald and the Herald’s sports blog.

Though the Lady Toppers’ season ended in disappointing fashion, Head Coach Travis Hudson said he’s confident in the future of his program.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Hudson said. “We will be right back here next year.”

The Lady Toppers (25-9, 13-4 Sun Belt Conference) lost to eventual Sun Belt Tournament champion Middle Tennessee State in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 15-25, 24-26) in their semifinal match on Friday.

“We put it all out there but just couldn’t close it out,” sophomore middle hitter Tiffany Elmore said. “It was sad to see the seniors go out like that.”

Freshman outside hitter Jordyn Skinner said the team hoped to defeat the Blue Raiders in part because of the all-Sun Belt team selections.

MTSU had four players on the first and second teams while Elmore, a second-team selection, was the only Western player honored.

“Everyone had it in the back of their head,” Skinner said. “We wanted to prove we could do it.”

Hudson said that, even though the team only had one player on the all-Sun Belt teams, the “scrubs can still play.”

Skinner and senior outside hitter Abbie Siljendahl played most of the match with injuries. Skinner hit her head in the second set and Siljendahl rolled her ankle in the third.

“The kids persevered the whole game and continued to battle,” Hudson said. “I’m extremely proud of them for that.”

Even though the Lady Toppers advanced to the tournament semifinals, Hudson said hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament are slim because the Sun Belt will likely send both MTSU and Florida International to the tournament.

FIU’s loss to MTSU in the Sun Belt championship match was its first conference loss all season.

Though the end result didn’t turn out how the Lady Toppers would have liked, Skinner said she’s excited for next season.

“Things didn’t go our way in the tournament, but next year is a new year,” Skinner said.

Western will return four starters but also graduates four players: Siljendahl, middle hitter Brittany Bowen, defensive specialist Lindsey Gould and outside hitter Aquila Orr.

But with four highly-touted freshman coming in for the 2010 season, Hudson said he isn’t concerned with the loss of talent.

“We definitely have one of the best freshman classes coming in,” Hudson said. “I’m excited to see how they mesh with what we have now.”

Hudson said despite the outcome of the Lady Toppers’ match against MTSU, this season’s team was still championship-worthy.

“This team was just remarkable from start to finish,” Hudson said.

Senior defensive specialist Lindsey Gould has been one of the best servers in the Sun Belt Conference during her career, ranking No. 3 in service aces in the conference as a sophomore and No. 6 last season.

As she prepares to play her final regular season match in Diddle Arena this weekend, Gould is the conference leader with 43 aces.

“My serve is more of a floater, which makes it tougher for the other team to pass,” Gould said.

The biggest adjustment to her serve occurred in her sophomore year and almost by accident, Gould said. She made an adjustment to her serve that made a tremendous improvement.

“I was practicing with a friend and tried something new, and it just worked for me,” Gould said.

Head Coach Travis Hudson said Gould has a “rather unique serve.” She approaches the service line from a different angle than most players, then jumps from one leg as she hits the ball.

“She has a unique knack to drop the ball into the gaps,” Hudson said.

Gould has worked hard to perfect her serve ever since she developed it, which Hudson said has been key to her development.

“Any good server gets better through repetition, and that is a big reason why Gould is first in the conference in aces,” Hudson said.

Gould leads a serving corps that Hudson called one of the best he’s coached in his 15 years with the Lady Toppers.

Western (21-7, 10-3 Sun Belt) ranks second in the conference with 162 service aces. The Lady Toppers average 1.52 aces per match, .58 more than their opponents.

Sophomore setter Lauren Stuckel has 34 aces this season, fourth in the Sun Belt.

“The serve has to be perfect to get an ace, and we know where we have to place it,” Stuckel said.

Hudson said serving is crucial to the Lady Toppers’ success.

“Serving and passing are the two most critical parts of the game, and serving is definitely the most critical to defense,” Hudson said.

Gould agrees that having good servers benefits the team.

“It is very important, because it starts off the play and makes defense easier,” Gould said.

Hudson said he has seen drastic improvement in all aspects of Gould’s game since she arrived at Western.

Gould is one of four Lady Toppers to have played in every set this season, and she ranks third on the team with 182 digs.

“She isn’t necessarily flashy, but she does a lot of stuff that goes by without noticing,” Hudson said.

Stuckel said Gould has been playing defense “out of her mind” lately, but Gould is more concerned about being a role model for the team.

“I have worked hard this year to be a leader,” Gould said. “I’ve been here for four years, so I know the ins and outs.”

The Lady Toppers will play their final home matches of the regular season this weekend. They face Florida International, which has a 14-0 conference record and beat Western in four sets on Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. tonight and Florida Atlantic at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

It’s rare for a veteran coach to be undefeated against a conference foe.

But Head Coach Travis Hudson is a combined 30-0 against Sun Belt Conference opponents South Alabama and Troy in his 15 years coaching at Western.

“I think it has a lot to do with having great players and better talent,” Hudson said.

Western (21-7, 10-3 Sun Belt) defeated South Alabama (25-16, 25-11, 25-12) on Saturday and Troy (25-15, 25-12, 25-13) on Friday.

The Lady Toppers have only dropped one set total against the teams during senior middle hitter Brittany Bowen’s time at Western.

“It just shows we get mentally prepared when we play them,” Bowen said.

The Lady Toppers have consistently taken care of the teams in the bottom of the conference. Troy ranks fourth in the Sun Belt’s East Division with a 6-8 conference record, while South Alabama is in last place at 2-12.

“It couldn’t be more important to get wins over these teams,” Bowen said. “We can’t drop these because it will just mess up what we have already accomplished.”

The Lady Toppers play the teams in their last two games of the season, facing Troy on Nov. 13 and South Alabama on Nov. 14.

“Those are the games that will matter the most, because those might determine tournament seeding for us,” Hudson said.

Freshman libero Sarah Rogers said the Lady Toppers know their team is better than the teams in the bottom of the conference, but it’s their job to prove it.

Western has not dropped a set in four of its last five matches, and Hudson said the team is right where he hoped it would be near the end of the season.

“I definitely feel like we are putting things together,” he said. “As a coach, you just love to see the 3-0 matches.”

Rogers said the shutout matches bring the team’s morale up.

“It makes it so much easier on us and Coach whenever we get the job done in three sets,” she said.

Hudson said his team’s improved play is in large part because of the increased playing time of the young players on the team.

“We are more relaxed, and that comes with experience,” Hudson said. “When you aren’t coming from behind in games, it takes a big load off.”

Bowen said the team’s success allows them to “have a lot of fun” during matches, which has been a factor in improving their results as well.

“We play better when we are having fun and being relaxed,” Bowen said.

The Lady Toppers are third overall in the conference, two games behind second-place Middle Tennessee State, with four matches left in the season.

“Seeding is important, but I am confident in our team no matter what our seed for the tournament is,” Hudson said.