Venus James scored twice in her first start for Carolina and Dagny Mellgren and Maren Meinert both tallied two times for Boston on Saturday in a day of high-scoring WUSA action. James' pair led the visiting Courage (6-2-3, 21 points) past Washington, 3-1, as Carolina equalled its win and point totals from the inaugural season while moving within two points of first-place Philadelphia. The Charge (7-1-2, 23 points), which beat the Courage on Wednesday, visits San Diego (2-6-2, 8 points) on Sunday; the Spirit is the only team that has beaten Philly this season. In all, 14 goals were scored in three games Saturday. Mellgren and Meinert's goals, and three Kristine Lilly assists, paced the host Breakers (3-5-4, 13 points) to a 5-2 romp over last-place New York. And Atlanta (6-4-1, 19 points) bounced back from last week's loss to the Courage with a 2-1 victory over visiting San Jose in a rematch of the first WUSA title game. In Saturday's WUSA action: Carolina 3 Washington 1: The Courage remained unbeaten (4-0-2) on the road as James scored her first two career goals, dribbling around Freedom goalkeeper Siri Mullinix after a 43rd-minute takeaway and heading home a Hege Riise free kick in the 53rd. Birgit Prinz, who has a goal or assist in all five games she's played this season, scored on a diving header from a Danielle Fotopoulos cross in the 67th to make it 3-0. Bai Jie scored in the 76th for Washington (4-5-3, 15 points), scoring off her rebound from a superb headed feed from rookie Abby Wambach. Atlanta 2 San Jose 1: Charmaine Hooper and Cindy Parlow scored first-half goals and the Beat vaulted past the CyberRays (5-4-2, 17 points) into third place before 6,670 at Herndon Stadium. Hooper expertly finished Kelly Cagle's flick-on header of a long ball from Sharolta Nonen in the 19th minute, her sixth goal of the season. In the 36th, Parlow headed a cross from Nancy Augustyniak that ricocheted off the left post, struck fallen goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene in the head and bounced into the net. Tisha Venturini-Hoch scored from a corner kick just before halftime to halve the deficit; Christina Bell's second-half header, a potential tying shot, hit the crossbar. Atlanta has never lost to San Jose, going 4-0-2 in six meetings. Last year's WUSA final, captured by the CyberRays on penalty kicks, officially counts as a tie. Boston 5 New York 2: Mellgren scored her seventh and eighth goals of the season and Meinert her fifth and sixth as the Breakers set a team scoring mark while handing the Power (2-8-1, 7 points) its fourth successive loss. Lilly's three assists give her seven this season. The fifth Breakers goal came off a Wynne McIntosh own goal that made it 4-2 early in the second half. Tiffeny Milbrett netted her eighth goal of the campaign, tied with Mellgren for the WUSA lead. She also assisted on Emily Janss' fourth goal of the season. SATURDAY'S SUMMARIES June 22 at Washington Washington 1 Carolina 3. Goals: Bai 76; James 43, James (Riise) 53, Prinz (Fotopoulos, Riise) 67. Washington — Mullinix; S. Little, Moore, Grubb, Barr; Zimny (Gerardo, 55), Jones, Makinen (Bai, 62), Pu (Beard, 78); J. Little (Hamm, 46), Wambach. Carolina — Luckenbill; Burt, Fettig, Slaton, O'Hanley; T. Roberts, Riise, Lehn (Barnes, 90); James (Anderson, 58), Fotopoulos, Prinz. Yellow cards — Washington: S. Little 39, Barr 52. Referee — Todd Perry. A — 5,761. June 22 at Atlanta Atlanta 2 San Jose 1. Goals: Hooper (Cagle, Nonen) 19, Parlow (N. Augustyniak, Hooper) 36; Venturini-Hoch (Chastain, Sissi) 43. Atlanta — Scurry; N. Augustyniak, Cromwell, Nonen, J. Augustyniak; Miller, Serlenga; Cagle, Sawa; Hooper, Parlow. San Jose — Beene; Borgman (Hendershot-Brown, 46), Bryan, Lindsey, Alagich (Bell, 88), French; Pretinha (Wagner, 79), Venturini-Hoch, Sissi; Chastain, Katia. Yellow cards — Atlanta: Nonen 67, Hooper 88; San Jose: Chastain 56. Referee — Peter Kokolski. A — 6,670. June 22 at Boston Boston 5 New York 2. Goals: Mellgren (Hucles, Lilly) 4, Meinert (Gonzalez, Lilly) 20, Meinert 27, own goal McIntosh 47, Mellgren (Lilly, Wiegmann) 58; Milbrett 15, Janss (Milbrett) 39. Boston — LeBlanc; Kluegel, McCann, Sobrero, Raygor; Hucles, Gonzalez, Lilly, Wiegmann; Mellgren (Kemp, 79), Meinert (Yohe, 65). New York — Gao; Pearman, Pearce (Hoffman, 79), McIntosh, Whalen; Fair, Rapp, Lalor (Davey, 63), Ormen (Stauffer, 63); Janss, Milbrett. Yellow cards — None. Referee — Kari Seitz. A — 6,548. WEDNESDAY'S SUMMARY June 19 at Cary, N.C. Carolina 1 Philadelphia 3. Goals: Pichon (Mitts) 26, Connors 39, Pichon (Zhao, Connors) 67; Fotopoulos (Prinz) 27. Carolina — Luckenbill; Burt, Overbeck (Fettig, 46), Slaton, O'Hanley (Anderson, 81); T. Roberts, Lehn, Riise; Barnes (James, 46), Fotopoulos, Prinz. Philadelphia — Moore; Mitts, Iverson, Tietjen, Benson; Tullock, Zhao (Clemens, 79), Fair, Monroe (Demko, 71), Connors (McDowell, 88); Pichon. Yellow cards — Carolina: Slaton 73. Referee — Sandra Hunt. A — 5,244. STANDINGS 1. Philadelphia 7-1-2, 23 points; 2. Carolina 6-2-3, 21; 3. Atlanta 6-4-1, 19; 4. San Jose 5-4-2, 17; 5. Washington 4-5-3, 15; 6. Boston 3-5-4, 13; 7. San Diego 2-6-2, 8; 8. New York 2-8-1, 7. SUNDAY'S GAME
Philadelphia at San Diego, 8 p.m. All times EDT.