The past two weeks have been rough for the Northwestern volleyball team. Head coach Lexi Ashburne lost two of her senior starters in the past 14 days, and it’s had a clear impact on the Tigers on the court.

Tuesday’s match against one of the Colonial League’s top teams was the first time Northwestern suited up without both of those starters. And their voids were felt against Notre Dame (Green Pond).

Notre Dame’s serving game was on point, and the Crusaders defeated Northwestern in straight sets (25-13, 25-5, 25-7) on Tuesday night at the Tigers’ home gymnasium.

“We were actually down two people today, which is a huge loss for us,” Ashburne said. “We had a lot of girls in positions they hadn’t been in normally. So, that was a huge change from the last game we played against them…We had to shuffle some people around into hitting positions.”

Senior libero Grace Shuhay left the Saucon Valley game two weeks ago with a concussion and will miss the rest of the season. Senior middle hitter Shante Duminie broke her thumb the day before Tuesday’s game against the Crusaders.

The absences were felt immediately, particularly on the serve receive as Notre Dame used lengthy runs in each set to pull away.

Northwestern trailed 8-5 early in the first set before that first signature run separated the Crusaders. During Isabela Guet-Cruza’s serve, Notre Damescored seven straight points to take a 21-7 advantage and seize all momentum. Jordan Appleton’s block at the net gave the Crusaders that lead it would not look back from.

“They have very strong servers,” Ashburne said. “Serving is how you control the game. It is how you keep the possession on your side. Serve receive has typically been a weakness of ours, so, that is just like a match strength for them. When they had strong servers and we have weak serve receive, that makes it challenging for us to come back. I don’t think this game showed what my kids can do. They have a lot going against them.”

The Tigers fought back after a 9-1 deficit in the second set to get within 10-4. But Notre Dame had an answer when Grace Silfani came up to serve.

Silfani took the Crusaders’ six-point advantage and increased it to 18-4 minutes later. She capped that run with an ace before the Tigers were able to take the next point and get within 19-5. Guet-Cruza’s serve helped the Crusaders win the final five points and the second set, 25-5.

Much the same was evident in the third and final set. Guet-Cruza’s serve helped Notre Dame-Green Pond pull away to an 18-6 lead. Then, the Crusaders scored the final six points behind Kelsey Priestaf’s serve to put away the host Tigers.

“The first three weeks went great,” Ashburn said. “We were doing really well and we were really competitive. We won a game against North Schuylkill, and that was not expected for us. We have really strong seniors, and when we lost one of our seniors to that concussion, it was a huge loss for us.”

Despite a number of unforced errors at the net, there were bright spots across the court as the Tigers sought to replace two of their leaders. Jovina Fager, Samantha McGinley and Kylie Wade all helped in replacing Duminie’s presence at the net.

While Shuhay is expected to miss the rest of the season, and Duminie will be out a couple of more games, Ashburne believes Northwestern’s biggest kryptonite is itself.

“Right now we are out own worst enemy,” Ashburne said. “We are kind of beating ourselves, giving away a lot of points and making mistakes. I think if they can get through that then we can still be competitive against a lot of those higher teams.”

Northwestern travels to Palmerton on Thursday for a 6 p.m. match.