For 38 minutes of yesterday's women's lacrosse game, only one thing seemed capable of stopping Harvard from winning its fourth straight game.

A thunderstorm.

But as a light rain fell on Soldiers Field, Northeastern forward Gail Zimmerman turned in an electrifying six minutes to pull her team within striking range of the nationally-ranked Crimson.

She scored once from five feet.

Three minutes later, she flicked in another goal--a backhanded toss that eluded the stick of Crimson goalie Kelly Dermody--to put her team within three goals of the hosts.

And with just 12 minutes remaining in the contest, she pounded home another shot, and the Crimson lead dwindled to 12-10.

Then, suddenly, the rain stopped.

And so did Zimmerman's offensive show.

And after 12 more minutes, Harvard (4-0-1 overall) claimed an 18-11 victory in front of 25 shivering spectators.

"We were definitely scared about it," Harvard Co-Captain Blair Wardenburg said of Zimmerman's three quick goals. "She's so tall, she could really keep the ball up there."

"I thought that when it got within two goals that they were definitely capable of winning," Crimson Coach Carole Kleinfelder said.

But Northeastern, now 0-2, couldn't build on Zimmerman's three-goal barrage.

And when Kelly McBride's shot from 10 feet, off a pretty pass from Kate Felsen, settled into the back of the net, the Crimson again held a three goal lead.

And after four more Harvard goals, not even another thunderous six minutes from Zimmerman--who recorded six goals and three assists on the afternoon--could have lifted the underdog Hounds to victory.

"As a team, I think we're improving," said Crimson sophomore Cindi Ersek, who scored three goals yesterday--her second three-goal outing in a row. "We had some nice passing sequences."

Harvard fell behind early in yesterday's contest, spotting the Huskies a 2-1 lead before Wardenburg took a pass from attack Leelee Groome over the middle and flipped a shot past Northeastern goalie Patricia McCarty.

Three minutes later, Ersek tossed the ball to McBride, who beat the Huskie goalie to give Harvard a lead it never relinquished.

"The defense had a tough first half," Wardenburg said. "And in the second half, the attack started to fall apart. But we pulled back together."

The Crimson will get a sterner test from New England powerhouse Massachusetts, when the Minutewomen visit Soldiers Field tomorrow at 3 p.m.

THE NOTEBOOK: Dermody finished with four saves...Wardenburg scored four goals, McBride two and Felsen two...Groome notched four assists...Pennsylvanians were responsible for nine out of the team's 11 assists. Only Bay Stater Anne Needham and Marylander Lisi Bailliere broke the Keystone state's monopoly on help-outs.