By Scott French, Senior Editor

HATS OFF TO ABBY: Washington striker Abby Wambach bounced back from her poorest performance in the WUSA with a hat trick, the first in Freedom history, in Saturday's 4-1 triumph over Philadelphia at RFK Stadium.

Wambach, last year's WUSA Rookie of the Year, headed home crosses from Mia Hamm in the seventh minute and Skylar Little in the 19th, then knocked home Kelly Golebiowski's blast off the crossbar as the game was ending.

She also set up Hamm's penalty kick, which restored a two-goal advantage in the 79th minute.

Wambach, a big, skillful forward who often sets the tone for the Freedom, had an abysmal outing two weeks earlier, in Washington's previous match. April Heinrichs left her off the U.S. women's national team's roster for an RFK friendly at against Canada, and a disappointed Wambach was in a fog in the second game of the doubleheader.

''Mentally, I think [being left off the roster] shut me off, and I think that tells me I need to mature mentally, preparing for games, whether I'm on one team or another,'' Wambach said. ''I had a couple of weeks to think about it, and I think I did all right.''

LATE HEROICS, PT. 2: Krista Davey did it again, coming off the bench and scoring in the closing minutes to lift rejuvenated New York for the second successive week.

She took advantage of a rare Kate Sobrero miscue, running onto a long ball from Margaret Tietjen in the 89th minute as the Power equaled its 2002 win total with a 3-2 decision Saturday against visiting Boston, its third victory in a row.

The Power overcame an early deficit and the fifth and sixth goals of the season by Maren Meinert, who had pulled Boston even in the 83rd minute.

Davey's stoppage-time goal a week earlier carried the Power, which rallied four times from deficits, to a 5-4 win at Philadelphia.

SAN JOSE SAMBA: The CyberRays doubled their season output on Saturday, getting goals from each Brazilian — Pretinha, Katia and Sissi — to hand visiting Carolina its fourth straight defeat.

San Jose had managed just three goals in its previous four matches, none of them by Brazilians.

''I felt like I had a monkey on my back,'' Katia, last year's WUSA scoring champion, said after the 3-1 win. ''I was talking to this monkey, telling him, 'You have to get out of here!' Tonight he left me alone and let me score.''

UNSTOPPABLE: Maribel Dominguez, who four weeks earlier netted the first hat trick of the season, scored her sixth goal as Atlanta rallied to tie visiting San Diego, 1-1. It wasn't nearly as spectacular as the Mexican striker's earlier efforts — a weakly hit ball deflected off former Beat defender Lisa Krzykowski and rolled slowly into the net — but it counted all the same. She's tallied in four of five Beat matches.

Scotswoman Julie Fleeting, who headed home a Shannon MacMillan corner kick for San Diego's goal, has found the net in each of the past four Spirit games. Three of her four strikes have been headers.

WIDENING GAP: Carolina's and Philadelphia's most recent losses opened a sizable gap to the top six teams, each of which has at least two wins and eight points.

The Courage, defending WUSA champ, and Charge, a preseason title favorite, are both 0-4 and sit 13 points behind league-leading Washington. Every other team has played at least five matches.

WUSA SUMMARIES WEEK 6: Powers fall to 0-4

May 10 at Washington
WASHINGTON (4-0-1, 13 points) 4 PHILADELPHIA (0-4-0, 0 points) 1.
Goals: Wambach (Hamm) 7, Wambach (S. Little, Jones) 19, Hamm pen. 79, Wambach 95+; Tietjen-Prozzo (Mitts, Hoffmann) 33.
Att.: 5,135.

May 10 at Atlanta
ATLANTA (2-1-2, 8 points) 1 SAN DIEGO (2-1-2, 8 points) 1.
Goals: Dominguez (Crumpton, Parlow) 75; Fleeting (MacMillan) 67.
Att.: 8,362.

May 10 at Uniondale, N.Y.
NEW YORK (3-3-0, 9 points) 3 BOSTON (3-2-1, 10 points) 2.
Goals: Welsh (Milbrett, Boxx) 50, Peters (Milbrett, Boxx) 62, Davey (Tietjen) 89; Meinert (Sobrero) 13, Meinert (Hucles, Lilly) 83.
Att.: 3,507.

May 10 at San Jose
SAN JOSE (3-2-0, 9 points) 3 CAROLINA (0-4-0, 0 points) 1.
Goals: Pretinha (Katia) 53, Katia (French, Sissi) 65, Sissi (French, Chastain) 67; James 93+.
Att.: 6,189.