ferocanus

I'll start by saying that I have not finished the anime (yet) and that I am a volleyball player myself.

Stumbling across a volleyball anime, as a player, was very intriguing, but at the same time what kind of killed it for me.

Story
Haikyuu follows hinata, a height-challenged volleyball player with a dream to become the top and the struggles of the team he plays in. They face problems such as lack of teamwork/teamspirit, rivalries between individual members, as well as tournaments and rival teams.
The story is presented well, with good pacing and structure. The story also depends heavily on your investment in the characters as person and understanding their personal struggles. The volleyball is just a setting in which this can play out and, to me, wasn't taking the main stage, though I like that they pause every so often to explain rules and tactics.
Sadly this is also where haikyuu started to lose me. As a somewhat experienced volleyball player, the sometimes overlong rants on tactics/setting either bored me or conflicted with my own opinions, distracting from the story as a whole.

Animation and Sound
The animation and sound are quite good. The animation is crisp, fluid and lively, as well as showing many perspectives. The sound, however, hasn't overwhelmed me yet, but is certainly not bad.

Characters
Now, this is where haikyuu really lost me. Let me say up front that this may be less of a problem for many, but to me the characters were completely unrelatable. Not because I couldn't understand the struggles themselves, but because the way it plays out in the anime differs so vastly from my personal experience that the characters got less and less believable.
It could be a culture difference, since I'm not really familiar with japanese culture, other than anime (nor american other than live-action series/movies, for that matter), but at points I disagreed so much with the anime that it became an annoyance and I lost investment.

Overall
Haikyuu is by no means bad, certainly if the other reviews are to be believed, but it just couldn't grasp me personally.
As for how it fares as sports anime, I have no idea, because this is the only true sports anime I've watched so far.