Megumi Kurihara began playing volleyball when she was in 4th grade of elementary school. In the 2nd grade of junior high school, she went by herself to Municipal Otsu Junior High School in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture to learn volleyball. One year later, she participated in Aquarius Cup and won Olympic Promising Player Award. She then entered famed Mitajiri Girls' High School (now known as Seiei High School) and won 4 champions in a row in National Inter-High School Championship, The National Sports Festival and Spring High School Volleyball Tournament as a 1st grader and National Inter-High School Championship as a 2nd grader, which made her a standout thereafter. She was chosen as a member of Japan women's national volleyball team in 2001 and made her debut appearance in the game against USA the following year. She participated as a young ace of Japan women's national volleyball team in the 2003 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup held in November of 2003. Kurihara became known as "Princess Meg" and whipped up public's interest in volleyball. Japan national women team participated in 2004 Summer Olympic Games and ranked 5th after failing to qualify for the previous Olympic Games. In 2007, she came back to Japan women's national volleyball team and took part in the 14th Asian Women's Volleyball Championship held in September of the same year. Japan national team defeated China for the first time in 5 years and Kurihara contributed a lot to the championship gained again after 24 years. In autumn 2007, she took part in 2007 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup as the ace of Japan women's national volleyball team. She won "Best Server" and "Best Scorer" awards in the final round of 2008 FIVB World Grand Prix and also participated 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship which was held in Japan in October brought Japan women's volleyball team a first bronze medal in 32 years. She joined Russian Super League team "Dynamo Kazan" in September 2011 and started to play volleyball overseas. Later she returned to Japan and played for OKAYAMA SEAGULLS and later for Hitachi Rivale. The game against Denso Airybees on January 23, 2016 marked her 230th match in her career and brought her the V.LEAGUE Honor Award. She thought about retiring in February 2018 but with the motivation "There is a place that needs me. There is still something I can do." she decided to continue playing volleyball. In 2018, she joined JT Marvelous and participated in V.LEAGUE DIVISION1 WOMEN 2018-19 and her team ranked 3rd at last. She also took part in "2018-19 V.LEAGUE ALL STAR GAME". Megumi Kurihara left JT Marvelous at the end of May 2019.
On June 4, 2019, she announced her retirement drawing her 17 years of career as a professional volleyball player to an end.