VALDOSTA — Valdosta State’s nationally-ranked tennis programs are certainly not shying away from playing tough competition.

And this weekend, they are bringing the tough competition to Valdosta.

Valdosta State hosts an unofficial tournament this weekend, bringing Armstrong Atlantic State, Tuskegee and West Florida to town. VSU plays Armstrong at 2 p.m. Friday, Tuskegee at 9 a.m. Saturday and West Florida at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Armstrong is the defending women’s Division II national champions and ranked No. 1 in the country this year, while West Florida is the two-time defending men’s national champions, and is also No. 1 in the country right now. Armstrong’s men are ranked No. 2 in the country, while West Florida’s women are No. 4. Also, on Saturday, in men’s action, No. 1 West Florida and No. 2 Armstrong will square off.

These matches will show VSU how it compares with the best in Division II.

“I think we’ll have a better idea of how good we are after this weekend,” VSU tennis coach John Hansen said. “It will give us a good indication. We know we can be competitive with them, but now we get to see how well we compete.”

The Blazers and Lady Blazers play one of Division II’s toughest schedules this season. They will play West Florida, Armstrong Atlantic, Barry, Lynn, South Carolina-Upstate, BYU-Hawaii, and conference foes Ouachita Baptist and North Alabama, each of whom is a top 10 team in one or both genders, as well as North Florida, which was an elite D-II team before they moved up to Division I.

“There are some tough teams on our schedule,” Hansen said.

Valdosta State opened its 2006 tennis seasons with two 9-0 victories over Georgia Southwestern State last Friday. The No. 10 Blazers followed that up with a 4-3 victory over North Florida on Saturday, while the No. 8 Lady Blazers narrowly missed defeating UNF, falling 4-3.

“The men’s win over North Florida was great,” Hansen said. “North Florida may be better this year than they were last year. We played very well.”

Valdosta State’s women’s team, which finished No. 3 in the country last year, has a mixture of experience and youth. Anne Corten, a sophomore from Rhodt, Germany, is 2-0 playing No. 1 singles. Corten was an All-American last year as a freshman. Fellow German Annika Biro, a senior from Koln, has won her first two matches at No. 2 singles. The team’s third German player, senior transfer Corina Scholten of Wesel, has stepped in and also won her first two matches.

After the three Germans, the Lady Blazers will play a trio of Georgia girls, Clair McKinnon of Baxley, Kellie Sturma of Atlanta and Keri Crosby of Baxley, each of whom is 1-1 so far.

“We’ve played well so far,” Hansen said. “We beat Georgia Southwestern in our first match, and then we could have beaten North Florida, but they beat us in an important doubles match (9-7). Anne and Annika are back, and they’re both great players, and getting Corina helps us a lot. Our other players have the potential to be good, but they’re young. But I think they’ll come around.”

The men’s team lost its two best players from last season, graduated All-Americans Eduardo Rincon and Philipp Laucht, but got a big break when senior Christoph Schneider, who also graduated last year but still had a year of eligibility left, decided to return to school and play another season. The Goch, Germany native will play No. 1 singles.

Two players from France, Mickael Andreo (from St. Maurice de Gourdans) and Thomas Provost (from Lyon) are playing No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively. Leos Jelinek, from Prague, Czech Republic, plays No. 4 singles, Nikolas Overkemping of Bonn, Germany plays No. 5 and Chris Boyd of Alpharetta is playing No. 6. Michael Tang, from Staffordshire, England, plays No. 1 doubles and is also in the mix in singles. The team will also be helped out by sophomore Dominik Hansen of Munich, who will make his season debut this weekend. Only Schneider is a senior, so the rest will be back in 2007.

“The men’s team looks promising,” Hansen said. “Again, we’ll know more after this weekend. But we’ve definitely got some talent on this team.”