Brady Mullen, Sports Editor

Before the whistle blows, before the locker room fills with noise, before she arrives at the stadium, Cate Bendowski makes a drive.  

The route is the same as always. Cheshire Starbucks. Country music on low. No hard techno, no pounding bass, just something easy, something that slows her down before the game speeds her back up. This isn’t by accident. It’s purposeful. 

“It’s going to sound corny,” Bendowski says, “but the music really does impact how I take the field.” 

A few years ago, you’d hear Calvin Harris’ “Sweet Nothing” blasting from her speakers, a superstition she held on to like tape on a stick. She’s since moved on and it’s not just about one song anymore. It’s about a feeling she has to find before she can take the field.  

She pulls out of the lot and heads toward the stadium. She parks, walks into the locker room and the music changes. The volume rises. It’s go time.

Before the volume rises 

Bendowski is a senior attack and captain for Quinnipiac women’s lacrosse. Outside of that, she is a DJ. Two identities that sound separate, but for Bendowski, they’re the same.

As conversations around student-athlete mental health grow across the NCAA, music is emerging as more than just instruments and vocals. For athletes like Bendowski, it’s a tool, one that shapes focus, controls emotion, and even becomes a form of self-care. 

More than background noise 

According to the NCAA’s 2023 Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Study, 44% of women athletes reported feeling overwhelmed constantly or most days, while 35% said they felt mentally exhausted at the same rate.  

Bendowski has been using music as a way to combat this and now research is backing it up. 

Studies on NCAA Division I athletes show that music serves four primary functions: arousal regulation, concentration, mood enhancement and team cohesion. It isn’t just background noise. It isn’t just hype music. For athletes, it is a psychological tool that most don’t even realize they are using.  

Music can trigger the release of dopamine, the brain’s pleasure chemical, while suppressing cortisol, the hormone tied to stress. The result: less anxiety, more control, all before the opening whistle.  

 
“The speed and volume of music have a direct impact on an athlete’s output,” said Devin Markle, Quinnipiac’s Director of Athlete Mental Wellness and Performance. “It can get their adrenaline going, and there’s often an emotional connection to it too. It can bring up memories or feelings, and even affect things like heart rate. Sometimes we want to use music to increase that, and sometimes to decrease it.”  

For college athletes specifically, the accessibility to music matters. Unlike other treatments, music doesn’t require an appointment, it is always there.  

“The biggest thing is having control over something in a high-pressure environment,” Markle said.

Finding the right frequency 

Bendowski didn’t study the research, she lived it.  

Last season, Bendowski came into games focused, just not the right way. Hard techno, high BPM, blasting in her ears before the opening draw. In the moment she thought it was helping. 

“I was really too much locked in,” Bendowski said.  

This season has been different. The hard techno is gone and the music feels lighter and more controlled. The switch was small, yet the difference is not.

“I feel more loose but confident on the field,” Bendowski said. 

What Bendowski describes is known as emotional regulation – the ability to consciously manage your mental and emotional state to meet the demands of a moment. In this case, Bendowski does it with a playlist. 

“If athletes use music too intensely, they can peak too early,” Markle said. “We have to find that sweet spot where it’s not anxiety or overkill, but something that helps performance.”

Controlling the locker room 

Before games the locker room belongs to her – not only because she is a captain – but because she also controls the soundtrack filling the room. 

“People are singing, people are dancing,” Bendowski said. “It really brings us together.” 

Hooked on stupidity

Three years ago, Bendowski’s cousin Jake sat her down in front of a DJ board and she had no interest.  

“[My cousins and I] were like, this is stupid,” Bendowski said. “How does he like this?” 

Then he showed her. One song bleeding into the next, the tempo shifting, two separate things become one. She was hooked. Now, every time the cousins are together, time gets set aside just for that. No phones, no distractions. Just music.  

“Every single time we’re together we devote like an hour to just DJing and mixing music together,” Bendowski said.  

The pregame mix started as a group project with her cousins helping her build the 2025 version. The 2026 version is hers alone. She took requests from teammates, considered what the team needed and built something that was equal parts hers and theirs.  

Bendowski sees the parallel between her two worlds.  

“When I’m DJing and doing well, I find confidence,” Bendowski said. “And when I’m on the field and I do well, I find confidence.”  

Two stages, two performances, the same person standing at the center of both.  

The quiet in the noise 

Away from the field and away from the board, Bendowski still finds her way back to music. On bad days in the classroom, tough days on the field, she will sit down alone and DJ. Not for the team. Not for a crowd. Just for herself.  

“I kind of just forget about everything,” Bendowski said. “It’s just fun for me to do. So it’s kind of an outlet for me when I’m stressed out.  

Music is always accessible. But for Bendowski, it’s more than that. The mixes she creates, the beats she layers, the songs she chooses, none of it is quiet. 

Yet somehow, in all that noise, she found her calm.  

“What you listen to and how you listen to it,” Bendowski said, “kind of really creates how you act in the day.”