When Rowan won the 2021 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) championship on Nov. 6, 2021, it was an exciting time. The game came down to a win-by-two in the fifth set, with the Profs beating out the Montclair State Red Hawks in a thrilling 19-17 fifth set. Esbjornson Gymnasium was electric when the Profs got that trophy-clinching point, and won their conference title for the first time since 2004. Everyone was on their feet. That includes high school seniors Vanessa Hutchinson and Jena Kaul, seated together. Kaul, a senior at Metuchen, and Hutchinson, in her final year at Upper Merion High School in Pennsylvania, were both committed to play for a Rowan women’s volleyball program that they felt like they already belonged to.
Eight months before that game on March 29, 2021, head coach Deana Jespersen was in Ithaca, New York. She was playing board games with her two kids and husband, Orlin, when she grazed her left breast and felt a sharp pain. She went to the shower, gave herself a breast exam, and felt a lump.
She knew the lump wasn’t anything, and called her OB/GYN office, who suggested she wait for two weeks and see what happens. Jespersen wasn’t satisfied and decided to call her mom.
Jespersen refers to her mom as a “doer.” She doesn’t wait, and she certainly doesn’t wait two weeks with potentially life-changing decisions in the balance. Jespersen’s mom also happened to know someone who could. By April 2, 2021, four days after finding a lump in her left breast, Jespersen was welcomed to Dr. Robin Ciocca’s office, a friend of her mom’s. She had no appointment, but the impromptu exam she was about to get would change her life.
That day, Jespersen was officially diagnosed with breast cancer. It was an odd sense of relief. She had been told to wait and see, shrugged off, and now her case was taken seriously. As she lay on the office table, she thought about her family, her friends, and her life. She couldn’t share the life-changing moment with anyone. After a 45-minute drive home in her own thoughts, she started sharing the news and changing the lives of those who loved her, too.
She called Hutchinson, one of two incoming recruits, along with Kaul, for Rowan volleyball. Hutchinson wasn’t quite sure what it would mean going forward.
“This doesn’t change anything,” Jespersen reassured on the other line.
And in terms of on-the-court success through the volleyball program, it didn’t. The standard that was set in 2021 did not waiver, with another NJAC championship season in 2022, with Kaul and Hutchinson on the floor, rather than in the stands.
Texts like “grab today and envision what you want,” “imagine dancing with your kids on their wedding day,” and “make it happen” kept Jespersen battling through it all, from colleagues at Rowan, like men’s soccer head coach Scott Baker. And Jespersen battled.
She coached with drains in her pockets and bandages all over her body. A condition called courting made her arms feel like guitar strings from shoulder to wrist. Her mom asked her daughter what she was doing.
Jespersen just had to be there for her players.
That’s the type of coach Jespersen is. She prides herself on being a “relationship coach.” So, when Kaul was playing as a high school senior in a showcase, committed to Rowan, Jespersen was there. As she sat on the floor, exhausted, not feeling well, she was joined by Kaul’s dad. That was the moment that Jena knew she had picked the right program. Jespersen felt the same way about Kaul.
“That was the moment she knew I’d be a great fit for this program,” said Kaul.
And because Jespersen was there, she inspired others. More specifically, she inspired Hutchinson’s “Mommom,” Regina Hutchinson.
Regina Hutchinson was a mom of five, a grandmother to 13, and also battled breast cancer. During Vanessa Hutchinson’s freshman season in 2022, Regina Hutchinson and Jespersen met.
Regina Hutchinson passed away in June 2025 at 84, and it meant the world to Vanessa Hutchinson that those two women, given how important they were in her life, were together after a game.
Nowadays, Jespersen has her natural hair, which is now curly as a result of the cancer. She loves her players and walks into practice every day, proud of the group of girls that are a part of her program. It’s a selfless group that she’s proud to have in the gym, girls who understand the bigger picture of what they’re playing for. Jespersen’s active in drills and fun music reverberates through the gym during their practices. As her girls prepare for a busy, four-game week ahead, it’s not a stressful time; it’s fun.
Aside from how she’ll get through senior night without crying, it’s relatively stress-free.
“You don’t get to tomorrow without support that day,” Jespersen said. And she’s right.
A former player, Cecily Scaviccho, from Jespersen’s days at Neumann University, set up a drive that helped cover her wigs and a medical recliner. Eastern University blew her away in dedicating an entire game to her journey. The Falcons at Messiah University were praying for her. Her players made pink scarves for her.
“I hope every woman that struggles has some sort of support like that because I certainly have a lot,” Jespersen said.
On Saturday, Rowan will wear pink for their annual breast cancer awareness game, which hits so close for a program that has felt the impact.
For Vanessa Hutchinson, their annual pink game is about much more than the actual match being played.
“We’re more than just a sport. It means everything that we get to spread the awareness to people that, yes, we play volleyball at Rowan, but life is so much more than that,” Hutchinson said.
That’s the type of family that Jespersen has built with Rowan volleyball. As donations continue towards this year’s efforts for breast cancer awareness, and players dress in pink throughout the month, it’s a constant reminder that it is more than just a team. It’s a family.
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