NEW PARIS — The National Trail volleyball team is off to slow start to the 2017-18 season.

Trail dropped a pair of matches last week to fall to 0-4 on the season.

The Lady Blazers traveled to Middletown to take on the Middletown Madison volleyball team on Thursday, Aug. 24 where they dropped a four-set match, 25-20, 25-23, 18-25 and 25-14.

Ariel Lee had 12 digs on defense and did not miss a serve.

Offensively, the Blazers were led by Lexi Stiner with eight kills, three aces and on defense had three blocks. Tristan Bowers led the team in aces with four, while Stiner had three.

National Trail traveled to Brookville on Monday, Aug. 21 and fought hard but lost a four set match.

Brookville won 25-11, 23-25, 25-19, 25-21.

Leading NT was Stiner with eight kills and senior Lauren Moore with four kills. Both Lee and sophomore Brooke Johnson had three aces. Risa Griffin led the team with 15 digs.

“We are getting better, we had some mental lapses that cost us points. You can not give the other team easy points and that is what we did,” Trail coach Joy Yeazel said.

In the opening weekend, Trail lost to Preble Shawnee and Valley View.

The Blazers were scheduled to begin conference play on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at Tri-Village. Trail will host Newton on Thursday and close out the week with a tri-match at Carlisle on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.