Deana Jespersen is entering her 11th season in 2024 as head women’s volleyball coach at Rowan University.
The 2021 and 2022 seasons saw the Profs capture back-to-back NJAC Championships (seventh and eighth in program history respectively). The 2021 title was the first since the 2004 season. Jespersen was honored with the NJAC Coach of the Year in both seasons for a total of four top coaching honors by the conference. In 2021, she was named the AVCA Region 4 Coach of Year Honors as the Profs went 27-6 and a perfect 8-0 mark in conference play. The team earned an NCAA regional ranking as high as #3 and produced four All-Region players and one AVCA All-American (Natalie Ogden), the second in program history. Ogden would repeat as All-Region and All-American in 2022 and was named the NJAC Player of the Year.
The 2019 Profs went 19-15 and posted a 7-1 conference record. Rowan enjoyed a six-match winning streak late in the year, and earned its first-ever NCAA regional ranking of 10th in the final weeks of the regular season.
Over 20 Profs have earned all-conference honors under Jespersen’s guidance, including four players in 2019 – Cassidy Abdalla, Kailey Gallagher, Megan Jacobi and Ogden. Gallagher became the first-ever Prof to be named to the AVCA Division III All-America Team, receiving an honorable mention selection alo while earning 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 in nine of the 10 years of Jespersen’s tenure (excluding the 2020 season) and in 2017, qualified for conference tournament for the 11th-straight time in team history, 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 University. She compiled a 179-156 record there and her overall career mark now stands at 264-267.
Her 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.
COACHING RECORD
| Season |
Record |
NJAC |
Notes |
| 2023 |
9-21 |
3-5 |
NJAC Tournament |
| 2022 |
24-7 |
8-0 |
NJAC Champions | NCAA Tournament |
| 2021 |
27-6 |
8-0 |
NJAC Champions | NCAA Tournament |
| 2020 |
-- |
-- |
Season canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2019 |
19-15 |
7-1 |
NJAC Finalists |
| 2018 |
17-16 |
6-2 |
NJAC Tournament Semifinal |
| 2017 |
12-20 |
4-4 |
NJAC Tournament |
| 2016 |
9-23 |
4-4 |
NJAC Tournament |
| 2015 |
11-22 |
5-3 |
NJAC Tournament |
| 2014 |
16-16 |
6-2 |
NJAC Finalists |
