DEANA JESPERSEN

Head Coach

Deana Jespersen is entering in her 9th season as head women’s volleyball coach at Rowan University and last year led the team to their most successful season in her tenure winning the NJAC Championship!

Last season in 2021, Coach Jespersen led the Profs to an NJAC Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. The Profs were ranked second in the region. Deana Jespersen was also named NJAC Coach of the Year (3rd time in her career) and Region IV Coach of the Year. Additionally, senior Outside Hitter Natalie Ogden was to the AVCA Division III All America Team, Honorable Mention. She also received All Region Honors. Junior Simone Sparano was named Co-Defensive Player of the year and three Profs were named to First Team All -Conference.

The 2019 Profs went 19-15 for the most wins since 2013 and posted a 7-1 conference record, formerly the best in Jespersen’s six seasons. Rowan, which enjoyed a six-match winning streak late in the year, earned its first-ever NCAA regional ranking of 10th in the final weeks of the regular season.

A total of 18 Profs have earned All-Conference honors under Jespersen’s guidance, including four players in 2019 – Cassidy Abdalla, Kailey Gallagher, Megan Jacobi and Natalie Ogden. A milestone for the program was also achieved as Gallagher became the first-ever Prof to be named to the AVCA Division III All-America Team, receiving honorable mention. She also earned All-Region honors, becoming just the second player to do so.

In 2018, Jespersen earned the NJAC Joy Solomen Coach of the Year award for the second time in her career as she guided Rowan to a 17-16 mark, and a 6-2 league record to earn the second seed in the conference championship.

The Profs have earned a spot in the NJAC Championship Tournament for all eight years of Jespersen’s tenure and in 2017, qualified for their 11th consecutive tournament, posting a 4-4 league record and 12-20 overall mark. The 2016 team went 4-4 in the NJAC and 9-23 overall with the Profs going 11-22 and 5-3 in the NJAC in 2015.

Jespersen joined Rowan in 2014 and led the Profs to a 6-2 NJAC record to clinch the second seed in the conference tournament. She was named the league’s Coach of the Year for her efforts, which included a 16-16 overall mark.

Jespersen’s coaching career spans 16 seasons as she came to Rowan after 10 years as the head coach at Neumann UniversityHer teams at Neumann won three Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) championships, in 2007, 2008 and 2012, while the Knights advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament each of those years. She earned the CSAC Coach of the Year award five times, including in 2012 when she led the team to a perfect 11-0 conference mark. Neumann was the CSAC runner-up three times and made three appearances in the ECAC Tournament (2013, 2011, 2006).

Jespersen coached the 2012 CSAC Player of the Year at Neumann and saw three of her players earn the conference’s Rookie of the Year award. One of her student-athletes also received the NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women’s Enhancement Postgraduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics.

Jespersen has served as the head coach of the Mystique Volleyball Club since 2004. Prior to beginning her stint at Neumann, she was the head coach at Swarthmore College in 1999 and was an assistant coach at Eastern University from 1996 to 1997.

A 1996 graduate of Elizabethtown College, she served as team co-captain and received the team’s Most Valuable Player award three times while earning All-Middle Athletic Conference honors as a senior.