It is not every day that someone who already has their college degree decides to enter the transfer portal to play one last season. However, Poulsbo, Washington native and former WSU middle blocker Camryn Lingenbrink chose to do just that.

Lingenbrink had already played three seasons at the University of Tulsa and earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and management before she entered the transfer portal. 

She was picked up by Washington State and arrived in Pullman in July 2025. She went back to Tulsa, Oklahoma, just seven months later, where she currently resides.

She said she knew she was going to return to Tulsa because her boyfriend, Will, got into medical school at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. Realizing she would probably never live in Washington State again, she wanted one last opportunity to go home and see her family.

Lingenbrink was one of the Cougars’ most statistically productive players this past season. She tallied 134 kills while hitting .318 and accumulating 83 total blocks, the second-most on the team behind Lucie Blažková.

Her best match of the season came against Northern Arizona University, when she recorded nine kills, four total blocks and 11.5 total points.

One of her favorite moments of the season was the Apple Cup because she was amazed by the environment in Bohler Gymnasium that night.

“Just the fact that I was playing college sports, standing on a…[court] that was…almost sold out was just…the most unreal thing,” she said. “The feeling on the court when we were playing in the Apple Cup…it gives me chills…thinking about it.”

Another big moment for Lingenbrink during the season came after the Cougars lost against the University of San Diego for the second time. The loss put the Cougars three games behind the Toreros in the West Coast Conference with nine matches remaining. 

It was then that Lingenbrink realized the team would likely not be making the NCAA Tournament, something she said was hard for her to mentally digest. The loss, however, allowed her to reflect on how far she had grown as a person since playing volleyball in college. 

“I feel like my whole mindset kind of shifted [after the loss]. And all of a sudden, it was kind of this…realization of like, none of this is even really about the sport, but…[about] how much I’ve grown as a person, and…kind of the life lessons that sports have taught me,” she said. “Whether that was…just being competitive, or showing up every day, or consistency or being able to work with other people.”

She said learning those lessons was the “best gift [she had] ever been given.” 

As for Lingenbrink’s legacy, while she only played at WSU for one season, she wants to be remembered as a great, reliable teammate who was always there for her team, especially for the younger players.

“It’s really hard; it’s a big jump. It’s hard to…move away from home, be in a different country, meet new people… your schedule is crazy,” she said. “And so…being someone that’s reliable…means more than anything to a 17-18 -year-old freshman… And so I always wanted to be that, especially for our freshmen.”

She also wants her teammates to know that she cared deeply about them and the program as a whole in her time there.

“Everything I did was because I really cared about [my teammates], about the program, about the school. I worked hard every day for my teammates and my coaches,” she said.

The main thing Lingenbrink said she was grateful for during her stand with WSU was the coaching staff. She said that when she entered the transfer portal, she lacked trust in coaches and self-confidence.

She described that at Tulsa, the team did not click well with the new coach who was hired after her freshman season. Because of four-year contracts the players signed as freshmen that could not be broken unless the player voluntarily transferred, Lingenbrink said the new coach made things “miserable” so they would leave.

“They kind of were putting us in a situation to force us to leave,” she said.

The coaching staff at WSU helped her gain back confidence.

“[The coaches] were so amazing to me and just…cheered me on the whole way, even when I…struggled to believe that I could do it or believe in myself,” she said. “They were 100% there for me the whole time.”

Lingenbrink currently works as a medical sales representative for Enovis Foot & Ankle in Tulsa, where she is also an assistant coach for the Tulsa Power 14 Ones team. She said she would love to keep working with the company to help her and Will get through medical school comfortably. Her possible long-term goal is to open her own distributorship.