Sports Shorts

OAKS' REPORT . . . The Menlo College football team will be gunning for its fifth straight victory on Saturday when the Oaks hope to celebrate homecoming weekend with a victory over visiting Southern Oregon. Kickoff is at noon. Menlo improved to 4-0 as two comebacks and a big interception with less than 30 seconds to play helped the Oaks hold on to a 24-17 victory over Whitworth University last weekend in Spokane, Wash. Menlo junior defensive back Anthony Bendana intercepted a pass by Whitworth's Bryan Peterson in the end zone with just 28 seconds to play to seal the victory. Prior to that, Menlo quarterback Matt Pelasasa marched the Oaks down the field for a game-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes. A 23-yard touchdown toss to Robert Adan gave the Oaks a 24-17 lead with only 1:43 left.

LOCAL COLLEGIANS . . . Palo Alto High grad Allison Whitson, a junior outside hitter at UC Davis, has led the Aggies to a 16-1 start in women's volleyball this season. They'll take an 11-match win streak into matches this weekend at Cal Poly-SLO and UC Santa Barbara. Earlier this week, Whitson earned Big West Conference Women's Volleyball Player of the Week honors for the period ending September 24. This is the first such honor for an Aggie player for the 2011 season. Whitson led the Aggies in kills in each of two conference wins during the previous week. She tallied 14 kills with a season-high .522 hitting average in a three-set sweep at Pacific on Sept. 21, then added 19 kills to go with 15 digs and five blocks in last Saturday's five-set marathon victory over UC Irvine. With the 33 kills during the week, Whitson increased her career total to 989. She looks to become just the seventh player in program history to surpass 1,000 for her career and just the second to do so as a junior.