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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 11:34 a.m., Thursday, January 10, 2008

Volleyball: Walsh to have shoulder surgery

By JIMMY GOLEN
Associated Press

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 today in a telephone interview to promote the AVP's new winter indoor tour. "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."

Walsh hasn't served with her right arm since the operation — "I got pretty good with my left hand," she said — but she was "back on the sand" on Wednesday for the first time and able to bump and set a little. She pronounced herself three weeks ahead of schedule.

"It's a little bit scary, but everyone is reassuring me that if I do work hard, I'm going to be fine," she said. "So I'm working really hard."