All throughout Sunday's women's lacrosse scrimmage with Ohio State, Alexa Demski kept having "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" moments.
The Tigers were testing out new player combinations with people in new positions and doing so against the 20th ranked team in the nation.
The result, as Demski put it afterwards, was "a big eye opener. "
"We had a lot of different people out on the field, playing different positions, more or less," said Demski, a senior defender. "(We had) attackers playing midfield, some midfielders playing attack, just to kind of give everyone a chance to see what's going to mesh."
"What we can take away from (Sunday) is we still have a lot to work on coming up this week. But we have a better sense of what we have to do to take it up to the next level, more or less."
And the Tigers, who won the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title last year, will have their mettle tested right off the bat with Friday's season opener at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are ranked fifth in the preseason deBeer Inside Lacrosse Women.com and IWLCA poll.
Before the end of March, Towson will face No. 14 Georgetown, top-ranked Syracuse, No. 17 Johns Hopkins and fourth-ranked Maryland, all before tackling conference opponents.
It's a brutal slate, to be sure but one that Demski believes the Tigers will have to handle to prove that Towson is a Final Four contender.
"That's really important for us to not look at teams like UNC and Maryland and Syracuse and hold them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to," said Demski. "Going into this season, we're really just trying to focus on ourselves as opposed to focusing on the opponents we're playing."
The Tigers were perfect in CAA play last year, winning all seven league games, on the way to a 16-4 mark overall.
They return 23 letter winners from last season, but one of their biggest graduation losses is All-American goalie Mary Teeters and her 9.20 career goals against average.
Sophomore Kelsea Donnelly is expected to follow Teeters in goal, but Demski said freshman Alyssa Saxon was "amazing" in Sunday's scrimmage.
Whoever is in nets will be fortunate to have Demski, who shares captains' duties with fellow senior Sarah Hogan and redshirt junior Ashleigh Rohrback, back to lead the defense.
The 5-foot-6 Loch Raven High graduate returns from a 2012 campaign that landed her on the third team IWLCA All-American team, as she led the team with 20 caused turnovers.
However, Demski's 2012 ended in the regular season finale against James Madison when she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
In hindsight, Demski said last year was a series of minor injuries that eventually led to "the big kaboom."
"I like to say it was God testing me, because I've always had lacrosse come so easily for me," said Demski. "Going into my final year of lacrosse, it was just something I needed to light the fire underneath me to play and come back that much stronger. That's the way I look at it."
The injury has, on some level, forced Demski to think about how she prepares for games. She now has to do more stretching, warming up and cooling down, and she jokes about being "an 80-year-old woman" among the Tiger freshmen.
Demski will be wearing a brace around her repaired knee and isn't quite at top speed. Still, she feels ready to play and fully trusts that she can make all the cuts and moves she could before her injury.
"I know when I reach 100 percent and am free, it will be that much sweeter to know that I had to work this much harder to get there," said Demski.
And this might not be the end of Demski's run in a Towson uniform. She was a brilliant field hockey player at Loch Raven, and her mother, who also played lacrosse and field hockey, has encouraged her to play hockey. If she can work out something with new Towson coach Carly Powell, Demski just might use her fifth year of eligibility to play next fall.
But, first things first, and that means helping to lead the lacrosse team, the preseason choice to repeat as CAA champions, to meet and exceed expectations.
"We are ready for the pressure to come out and we're just really ready to show that last year wasn't a fluke," said Demski. "It's meant to be and we're going to show that again this year."
