FREE FOOD for pregnant women, infants, and children under the age of 5, call: 1-800- 1171 -A ..I..mi........ —I ....».II.* PIIIPH11 n 11111. M1111IIII. Ill III I.I.I.I I III ,1.1.IN IIIMIII III IB! ON SALE AT TWISTERS CD's $8.77 Cassettes Big Bands Oscar Peterson Charlie Parker Stan Getz Sarah Vaughan I 434-2510 434-2520 Prlooa •llootlf* through 12-11-82 Mideast contest anybody’s game By Tim Pearson Staff Reporter_ In what may be the toughest of all the NCAA volleyball tournament regionals, there is no definite favorite 1 to win the Mideast, coaches said. No. 2 Stanford will meet No. 9 Penn State in the first match at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, and No. 7 Nebraska will face No. 6 Illinois at 7:30 p.m. The matches will be held on the mini’s home floor at Huff Gymnasium in Champaign, 111. “I think it's pretty evenly balanced. This is by far the deepest and most evenly balanced regional out of the four,” said Stanford coach Don Shaw. “It’s going to come down to who plays well.” Illinois coach Mike Hebert agreed with Shaw’s assessment of the Mid cast as the toughest regional. “There arc four teams here, any of whom can win it,” he said. “This is certainly the toughest (region) by far.” Stanford, which enters with a 27-2 record, has lost both of its matches to lop-ranked UCLA. Sending Stanford into the region makes the Cardinal and Illinois co-favorites, said Penn Stale coach Russ Rose. I think m terms of geography, Illinois is the favorite,” Rose said. “But throw Stanford into the Mideast, and they’ll make it interesting.” “On paper, (Stanford) has some ot the best talent in the country. But I have to give the nod to Illinois, be cause they’ll be playing in front of 4,(XX) people at home.” Shaw said his team would be con sidered the favorite, according to its No. 1 seed in the regional. He said he wouldn’t call Illinois the favorite because of its home-court advantage. “It’ll be a giant advantage (for Illinois), but if they don’t play well, they’ll get beat,” Shaw said. Hebert also said he wouldn’t call his team the favorite. “We have to play well. (The home court advantage) is only an advantage if wc take advantage of the advan tage,” he said. The 22-5 Cornhuskcrs need middle 1 Stanford (27:2[— 5:30 p . m . Thursday 4 Pgna.SteteJZfe3J. CHAMPIONSHIP 7:30 p.m. Friday JJMOEtiU&SL 7:30 p . m Thursday 2 Illinois (31-3) All matches played at Huff Gymnasium, Champaign, IN. Scott Maurer/DN blocker Stephanie Thatcr, who has been out the last three matches with an ankle injury, to win the regional, Rose said. “Without Thaler, they could be in trouble,” Rose said. “It’s regionals and they need Thatcr to play.” Hebert said his team was preparing for its match against Nebraska assum ing Thatcr will play. Even if she doesn’t, he said, the Huskers will adjust. “If she doesn’t play, she doesn’t play. We experienced that earlier this season, when we lost (outside hitter) Tina Rogers for a few matches,” Hebert said. “We adjusted and won a few matches. I expect Nebraska to play just as tough without her.” The winners of the semifinal matches will meet 7:30 p.m. Friday at Illinois, with the winner advancing to the Final Four Dec. 17-19 in Albu querque, N.M. Player of the Week awarded to Piatkowski From Staff Reports One Nebraska basketball player received accolades Tuesday while another was greeted with good news on an ankle injury. Junior forward Eric Piatkowski was named as the first Big Eight Player of the Week of the season following his performance in last weekend’s Ameritas Classic. Piatkowski scored 48 points and pulled down 25 rebounds in Nebraska’s win over Colgate and Kent State. His 847 career points rank the 6 foot-7 forward 22nd on the all-time Nebraska scoring chart. Piatkowski is also 10 three-point shots shy of the Comhusker career record of 105 held by Ray Richardson. Meanwhile, Nebraska senior cen ter Derrick Chandler had his left ankle x-rayed on Wednesday morning. Re sults showed that there was no break in the foot, associate head trainer Jack Nickolitc said. Chandler injured his ankle just before halftime of the Comhuskers’ 86-46 win over The Citadel on Mon day night. He is listed as doubtful for Nebraska’s Thursday night game against Creighton and is questionable for the Comhuskers’ game Saturday at Wichita State. The ticket office reported Wednes day that 8(X) upper-level tickets re main for the Creighton game at the Bob Dcvancy Sports Center. That game will be televised live by Prime Sports Network. Huskers Continued from Page 7 "They each have that innate ability not to be strung out in pressure situa tions.” Tonight’s game is the beginning of a three-game home stand for Nebraska. The Huskers will also host the CablcVision Classic this weekend, which leatures St. Mary’s, Eastern Washington and Howard. Beck said the home games were important for her team to build its win total and to improve. “We’re inching up to where our goal has to be, and these three games arc very important to our future,” Beck said. “We need to concentrate on each game and win them to our best ability.” The three home games in a row will also give the Huskers a chance to establish themselves as a dominant home-court team, Beck said. “We don ’ t want anybody to beat us at home, so we’re going to make it very lough for anybody to come in here and beat us,” Beck said.