When the Cazenovia girls lacrosse team ventured to Whitesboro last Thursday afternoon, it carried a 3-5 record attained through the first half of the regular season and the knowledge that it had to improve that mark.

To that end, the Lakers engaged in a tense, exciting battle with the Warriors, but were able to pull out a 10-9 victory.

With Whitesboro’s defense bent on stopping Chloe Willard, Cazenovia turned to Mikaylee Whalen, who poured in three of her team’s first five goals as the Lakers built a 5-2 advantage.

From there, the rest of the first half played on even terms, with Cazenovia still up 7-5 at the break, but then seeing the Warriors pull even 7-7 early in the second half, carried there by Lexi Scaccia, who finished with five goals overall.

Another exchange of goals followed, and Whitesboro went up 9-8 on Cameron Boehlert’s goal with 7:57 left, but the Lakers regained the lead down the stretch and held on thanks to nine saves from Laura Lorraine.

Whalen didn’t let up, eventually producing six goals as Willard scored twice and added a pair of assists. The other goals went to Laura Connor and Lauren Burbidge, with Kaitlyn Puffer adding an assist.

If the Lakers beat LaFayette Saturday, it would get to the .500 mark before games against Homer and Rome Free Academy in the first week of May.