AVP indoor volleyball: Walsh eager

The pain in Kerri Walsh's right shoulder didn't keep her from rising to the top of the world beach volleyball rankings. Now that she's had everything cleaned up, watch out.

"The only way it's going to affect me in '08 and Beijing is I'm going to be better," Walsh said Thursday in a telephone interview to promote the AVP's new winter indoor tour, which comes to the Allstate Arena on Feb. 8. "Last time I had my shoulder surgery, in college, it made me a better player. I needed to fix some of my mechanics, so that's what I'm really excited about."

The Olympic gold medalists in 2004, Walsh and partner Misty May-Treanor are the top-ranked women's team in the world, having qualified for the Beijing Games a year early by winning each of the eight international tournaments they entered in 2007.

Their domination of the world tour gives them a chance to take it easy this season, an advantage that could come in handy as Walsh recuperates from last fall's surgery to remove the bone chips, bone spurs and scar tissue that had been building up in her right shoulder.

"It was a long time coming," said Walsh, who last had surgery on the shoulder in college, nine years ago. "I had been playing in pain for the past couple of years. I just wanted to get it cleaned up."