Crimson Hero

Whether you're a drama or shoujo manga fan, surely the title "Devil Beside You" (惡魔在身邊) or "Akuma de Sourou" would ring a bell to you. "Akuma de Sourou" is the original manga title which were later made into a Taiwanese drama series "Devil Beside You" and became quite popular some years ago.
From the same mangaka, comes another great series that is currently still ongoing in shoujo manga magazines and gaining popularity among shoujo fans. "Crimson Hero" is Takanashi Mitsuba's newest work that merges sports and love into a quite a story.

Crimson Hero (Beniiro Hero) Japanese Version Vol 01 Cover

Here's a cut and paste introduction from Shojo Beat:

All that matters to 15-year-old Nobara Sumiyoshi is volleyball—she's an awesome player with big-time ambitions. But sometimes it seems like a girl just can't get a break in the competitive world of high school volleyball.

Nobara's family wants her to inherit the role of "young mistress," serving rich patrons at her family's old-fashioned Japanese restaurant. No thanks! When Nobara transfers to Crimson Field High School, known for its top-notch volleyball team, it turns out that her mother will stoop to dirty tricks to keep her off the court. With assistance from her feisty Aunt Momoko, who's got some connections at Crimson Field, Nobara decides to start playing offense.

Besides using volleyball sport theme which is quite uncommon in shoujo mangas (compared to those popular basketball and soccer themes), Takanashi's good balance with sport scenes and love scenes intervened between made "Crimson Hero" one of the few quality shoujo mangas that doesn't worn you out with overloaded sport-actions or overloaded love scenes in the same chapter. While the style of the manga is very much shoujo at first sight, the sport actions are intense and drawn quite accurately with no awkward angles and movements, not losing to any shounen sport mangas out there.
Another great aspect in both "Akuma de Sourou" and "Crimson Hero" are their characters and their relationships. All characters and their personalities are created in-depth and very impelling that they easily leaves impressions that most if not all are connects to each other in a very unique way. The love triangles and dramas are portrayed in real but not overly so, compared to her previous work "Akuma no Sourou" which has more drama and bitter experiences (that made me reach for the tissue box everytime I read it again).

Currently this series is still ongoing with newest Vol.13 out in Japan, while there are already 8 volumes English version available by Viz Media, Shojo Beat. There are some previews available in the manga page if you follow up the Shojo Beat link. You can also head to OneManga.com for free online reading up to Vol.9!