A smash hit manga spikes its way onto the TV screen for the first time! Kozue, a positive and cheerful high school girl devotes her entire energy toward her school volleyball team. Extremely severe practices designed by the strict head coach Inokuma, highly competitive matches against the toughest top players, friendships and rivalry among teammates with strong characters…. Can Kozue’s genuine love toward volleyball make the impossible come true?
Ueto Aya plays Kozue, a high school girl who is a member of a volleyball team which is considered one of the best high school teams in Japan. However, Kozue is far from the best player on the team and makes mistakes quite frequently. She does get a bit of time in the spotlight at the beginning of the first episode when she is suddenly added to the lineup at the end of an important game and makes the deciding spike. Still, she has only modest confidence in her abilities and looks up to the more skilled members of the team such as her best friend, Midori.However, this year Kozue is chosen to play on the national team instead of Midori, who was chosen last year. No one on her high school team can believe this, since she is not even the best on the team let alone national level material. Her teammates suddenly become quite hostile toward her, and even her best friend, Midori becomes distant and jealous. Despite a lacking level of self-confidence, Kozue decides to participate in the national team since it's too exciting an opportunity to pass up.
The coach of the national team turns out to be Inokuma Daigo (Funakoshi Eiichirou if you can believe it), who is a big scary-looking guy with sunglasses who kicks girls off the team left and right, dragging them out of the gym by their hair as they kick and scream. (Funakoshi looks really different with the facial hair and sunglasses.) He also used to be the coach of the boys national team many years ago when the coach of Kozue's high school team (Nakamura Shunsuke) was playing. Nakamura's character hates Inokuma, and he blames him for the death of his friend who apparently died from overexertion after being named captain.
Kozue meets a lot of talented players on the national team, and she has to do her best to keep up and rise to the same level as them. There is even one girl named Sanjou who hates Kozue and resents her very presence on the team. She hates her even more when the coach suddenly names Kozue captain of the team. Again, Kozue doesn't feel she is right for this role, but quickly rises to the challenge - even when given difficult responsibilities such as choosing the starting lineup of the team. If that weren't enough, to test Kozue's loyalty, the coach decides that their first practice match will be against Kozue's high school. Now Kozue will have to face all her friends, who are just as desperate to win as the national team is.
