Krista Davey scored a late gamewinner for the second week in a row Saturday and the New York Power equaled its 2002 win total by beating visiting Boston, 3-2, for its third successive WUSA victory after an 0-3 start.
Davey, whose stoppage-time strike carried the Power past Philadelphia last week, scored in the 89th minute to push New York into a tie with San Jose for third place, four points behind first-place Washington and a point behind the Breakers.
Washington opened a cushion atop the WUSA standings with a 4-1 romp over visiting Philadelphia as Abby Wambach had a hat trick and drew the foul that led to Mia Hamm's corner kick.
Maribel Dominguez's sixth goal of the year helped Atlanta rally for a 1-1 tie with visiting San Diego.
San Jose got goals from each of its Brazilians to beat visiting Carolina, 3-1.
Saturday's highlights:
Washington 4 Philadelphia 1: Wambach scored on headers twice in the first 19 minutes and completed her hat trick with a rebound deep into stoppage time as the Freedom (4-0-1, 13 points) remained atop the WUSA with a victory before 5,135 at RFK Stadium.
Hamm's corner kick supplied Wambach's first goal, and she added a penalty kick in the 79th after Philadelphia rookie Mary McVeigh held Wambach in the box.
Jen Tietjen-Prozzo, victimized on Wambach's seventh-minute strike, halved the deficit in the 33rd by sprinting behind the Freedom's defense, pulling out after a corner kick, to nod home a superb ball from Heather Mitts.
The Charge (0-4-0, 0 points) was missing Kelly Smith (knee), Lorrie Fair (calf) and Pavlina Scasna (foot), all out with injuries, and Marinette Pichon, in Hungary for France's European Championship qualifier on Sunday.
Atlanta 1 San Diego 1: Dominguez netted her league-leading sixth goal of the season and the Beat (2-1-2, 8 points) rallied to earn a point before 8,362 at Herndon Stadium.
Julie Fleeting scored her fourth goal and Jaime Pagliarulo returned to the nets with a strong performance for the Spirit (2-1-2, 8 points).
Fleeting headed in a Shannon MacMillan cross off the eighth of nine San Diego corner kicks to give the Spirit a 67th-minute advantage. Eight minutes later, Dominguez took a feed from Abby Crumpton and, seemingly contained by two defenders, hit a weak shot that deflected off Lisa Krzykowski's foot and rolled slowly into the net.
New York 3 Boston 2: Davey took advantage of Kate Sobrero miscue to lead the Power (3-3-0, 9 points) before a sparse gathering of 3,507 at Mitchel Athletic Field.
New York has won three in a row for the first time in history and halted an eight-game home losing streak.
Maren Meinert scored twice, her fifth and sixth goals of the season, giving the Breakers (3-2-1, 10 points) an early lead and then tying the score at 2 in the 83rd minute.
For New York, rookie Christie Welsh scored for the third successive game, Joanne Peters added a goal midway through the second half for a Power lead, Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon Boxx each tallied a pair of assists, and Margaret Tietjen made a goal-line stop of a Marcia Wallis shot.
Tietjen also set up Davey's goal, sending a long ball toward the Boston box. The ball bounced over Sobrero's foot, and Davey beat goalkeeper Krista LeBlanc one-on-one.
San Jose 3 Carolina 1: Brazilians Pretinha, Katia and Sissi scored second-half goals and the CyberRays (3-2-0, 9 points) doubled their season output to keep the defending champions winless.
Pretinha scored from a Katia toe-poke to put San Jose on top in the 53rd minute, and Sissi and Katia added goals two minutes apart to make it 3-0 by the 67th. Former CyberRay Venus James ended the shutout bid in stoppage time.
Carolina (0-4-0, 0 points) have lost three successive games by 3-1 scores. Goalkeeper Kristen Luckenbill made her first appearance of the season for the Courage, which also started the inaugural season 0-4.
SATURDAY'S SUMMARIES
May 10 at Washington
Washington 4 Philadelphia 1. Goals: Wambach (Hamm) 7, Wambach (S. Little, Jones) 19, Hamm pen. 79, Wambach 95+; Tietjen-Prozzo (Mitts, Hoffmann) 33.
Washington — Mullinix; S. Little, C. Moore, Grubb, Barr; S. Jones, Stoecker; J. Little (Schott, 81), Lindsey (Golebiowski, 55), Hamm (Zimny, 84); Wambach.
Philadelphia — M. Moore; Mitts, McVeigh, Tietjen-Prozzo, Benson; Makinen; Misaki (Borisjuk, 82), Hoffmann, Monroe (Maso de Moya, 81), Tullock (Kruze, 72); Arrington.
Yellow cards — Washington: Schott 90; Philadelphia: McVeigh 81.
Referee — Kari Seitz.
A — 5,135.
May 10 at Atlanta
Atlanta 1 San Diego 1. Goals: Dominguez (Crumpton, Parlow) 75; Fleeting (MacMillan) 67.
Atlanta — Scurry; Bivens, Nonen, N. Augustyniak, Gaston (J. Augustyniak); Miller, Serlenga (Crumpton, 46); Parlow (Pohlers, 81), Sawa; Dominguez (Burt, 89), Hooper.
San Diego — Pagliarulo; Pickup (Fair, 84), Fawcett, Krzykowski; Daniela, Foudy (Nielsen, 88); MacMillan, Wagner, Connors; Latham (Zhang, 61), Fleeting.
Yellow cards — Atlanta: Gaston 20; San Diego: Krzykowski 40, MacMillan 77.
Referee — Rachel Woo.
A — 8,362.
May 10 at Uniondale, N.Y.
New York 3 Boston 2. Goals: Welsh (Milbrett, Boxx) 50, Peters (Milbrett, Boxx) 62, Davey (Tietjen) 89; Meinert (Sobrero) 13, Meinert (Hucles, Lilly) 83.
New York — Smolak; Pearce, Boxx, Raveia, Tietjen; Janss (Davey, 73), Baumgardt (Pearman, 88), Jones, Peters; Welsh (Orlandos, 89), Milbrett.
Boston — LeBlanc; Kluegel, Sobrero, Gonzalez (McCann, 77), Aldama; Popper (O'Grady, 62), Hucles, McDowell, Lilly; Meinert, Wallis (Gulbrandsen, 77).
Yellow cards — New York: Jones 90; Boston: Aldama 36.
Referee — Todd Perry.
A — 3,507.
May 10 at San Jose
San Jose 3 Carolina 1. Goals: Pretinha (Katia) 53, Katia (French, Sissi) 65, Sissi (French, Chastain) 67; James 93+.
San Jose — Beene; Alagich, Bryan, Cromwell, Chastain; Sanchez (Clemens, 85), Barr (Cook, 85), Venturini-Hoch (Sissi, 46), French; Pretinha, Katia (Barnes, 71).
Carolina — Luckenbill; Burt, Boyd, Fettig, Slaton; Roberts, McCullough (James, 62), O'Hanley (Overbeck, 67), Baxter (Borgman, 81); Fotopoulos, Prinz.
Yellow cards — San Jose: Barr 56, Katia 66, Cromwell 83; Carolina: Burt 60.
Referee — David Simon.
A — 6,189.
WUSA STANDINGS
1. Washington 4-0-1 13 points (12-4 GF-GA)
2. Boston 3-2-1 10 (11-13)
3. San Jose 3-2-0 9 (6-6)
4. New York 3-3-0 9 (12-16)
5. Atlanta 2-1-2 8 (13-3)
6. San Diego 2-1-2 8 (7-5)
7. Philadelphia 0-4-0 0 (6-13)
8. Carolina 0-4-0 0 (4-11)
SATURDAY'S RESULTS
Washington 4 Philadelphia 1
Atlanta 1 San Diego 1
New York 3 Boston 2
San Jose 3 Carolina 1
NEXT WEEK'S GAMES
Saturday, May 17
Philadelphia at New York, 4 p.m. (PAX TV)
Carolina at Washington, 5 p.m.
San Jose at Atlanta, 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 18
Boston at San Diego, 8 p.m.
All times Eastern
LEADING SCORERS
1. Maribel Dominguez (Atlanta) 6-2–14
2. Maren Meinert (Boston) 6-1–13
3. Mia Hamm (Washington) 4-3–11
4. Julie Fleeting (San Diego) 4-0–8
Tiffeny Milbrett (New York) 3-2–8
Abby Wambach (Washington) 4-0–8
Christie Welsh (New York) 4-0–8
8. Dagny Mellgren (Boston) 3-1–7
9. Jacqui Little (Washington) 2-2–6
Abby Crumpton (Atlanta) 2-2–6
11. Charmaine Hooper (Atlanta) 1-3–5
Shannon MacMillan (San Diego) 1-3–5
Homare Sawa (Atlanta) 2-1–5
Sissi (San Jose) 1-3–5
15. Krista Davey (New York) 2-0–4
Danielle Fotopoulos (Carolina) 1-2–4
Monica Gonzalez (Boston) 1-2–4
Katia (San Jose) 1-2–4
Birgit Prinz (Carolina) 2-0–4