GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Courtney Shealy kept bumping into things -- the doorframe, a table in the media room -- but she finally found the solace she was seeking in the Georgia volleyball team's locker room, bypassing a slew of orange plastic chairs to sink into a big, overstuffed model.

Twelve hours after awakening, with ice bags taped all over her legs, Shealy finally had time to sit back and relax a bit, to review the history she had just created. After becoming the first female athlete in Georgia history to compete in two different varsity sports on the same day, Shealy was due a little reminiscence.

"I'm going to take it all in, I guess, because I haven't really had a chance to sit back and think about it," she said, her voice still energetic as ever. "I've kind of been going, and I didn't want to over-think about it beforehand."

No, remaining calm and acting as if everything was normal was the order of the day. But it started off in a most abnormal way, with Shealy hauling her 6-foot-3 frame out of bed at 9 a.m. -- four hours later than her usual Friday wake-up call.

The swimmer/volleyball player from Irmo, S.C., began her attempt at a historic double with a somewhat heavy breakfast in the lobby of the Cabot Lodge -- a croissant, a doughnut and a banana. Food would become perhaps the overriding theme of the day, with coaches and trainers and Shealy's parents, Herb and Dianne, all going out of their way to keep Shealy's energy up.

At 11 a.m., Shealy looked like she was ready to get going, though her first actual competition was four hours away. She joined her volleyball teammates for the customary one-hour practice several hours before their match with the Gators. Her swimming teammates held a similar workout at 8 a.m., but Shealy skipped that dip in the O'Connell Center pool to get some extra sleep.

About halfway through the volleyball practice, Herb and Dianne arrived, both wearing red Georgia volleyball shirts. They looked on from the top row of the lower deck as their daughter went through drills with nine teammates -- all that's left of the Lady Bulldog squad after two players went down with torn ACLs this season.

Georgia wound down looking relaxed, and coach Jim Iams turned his team loose with a suggestion that they get together sometime during the afternoon and discuss their goals for the evening's match. It would be a difficult task for Shealy -- she had plenty of other things to worry about.

Her teammates left by bus, heading back to the hotel for some rest, and Shealy climbed the stairs to join her parents, who were waiting to whisk her away to the Olive Garden, where the swim team was eating its pre-meet meal. There was no question about where Shealy's thoughts were as she joined her parents -- she moaned "feed me!" upon seeing them.

At the restaurant, Shealy joined the swimmers for some lasagna, though she found her portions unsatisfactory: "It was a little thing of lasagna," she said. "No salad, no breadsticks, a glass of water, and a little thing of lasagna -- because they were like, 'Here, eat! You've gotta eat!"

Her parents sat at a table in another part of the restaurant, discussing their travels across the Southeast to watch their daughter compete. But before they could even order food, Courtney showed up and asked if her father could drive her back to the hotel so she could leave to go to the swim meet with her team. Herb eased out of the chair and headed for the family minivan once again, and Dianne ordered lunch for her husband.

It became apparent that Dianne stored up most of the pre-competition anxiety for the family.

"I think she's excited," Dianne said of her daughter's rapidly approaching shot at history. "I think I'm more nervous now than she is. This is an everyday occurrence for her."

She had a point. Three days a week during the fall, Courtney rises at 5 a.m., has swimming practice from 5:30 to 7, lifts weights from 7 to 8, attends classes from about 8 to 12, takes a two-hour nap, then heads to volleyball practice by 2:30 to get her ankles taped up. She practices with the volleyball team from 3:30 to 6, studies from 6 to 7:30, then heads off to bed around 9 most nights.

"I don't really watch TV," she said. "I eat a little bit, take a shower. I don't know what the new shows are or anything like that, I'm just totally focused on my academics. I have like a 3.5 GPA (in sports communications), and I'm really excited about that. Playing two sports has taught me time management, how to be disciplined, get up and get everything done."

Which, at about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, meant boarding the team bus back at the Cabot Lodge. Bulldog swimming coach Jack Bauerle, who was so wired that he skipped the meal at the Olive Garden in favor of a brisk jog, displayed a sense of humor about Shealy's long day at the office.

"We'll swim her two or three times," he said, "just to get her warmed up for volleyball."

With a smile, it was back on the bus for Bauerle. Within minutes, the team was at the O'Connell center, beginning warmups for the 3 p.m. swim meet against the Gators. Shealy did laps with her teammates in the warm-up pool; she would swim the first leg of the first event, the 400-yard medley relay, for the Lady Bulldogs.

Shortly after 3, Shealy took her place on the starting block, the leadoff swimmer for Georgia's No. 2 relay team. Shealy jumped into the water, with her back to the length of the pool, and got ready. With the starter's horn, her day had finally officially begun.

Shealy got off to a good start on the backstroke, heading out quickly along with her teammate, backstroke specialist Amanda Adkins, who led off for the Lady Bulldogs' top relay team. After four laps of the 25-yard pool, Shealy touched the wall just after Adkins, with a 55.34-second split to Adkins' 55.19 seconds. Three minutes later, Shealy's team had finished second to the other Lady Bulldog squad -- a good way to start the meet for the Georgia team.

Just after the end of the medley relay, the Georgia volleyball team arrived at the pool to cheer on their teammate and the other swimmers. The volleyball players filed in and took seats in the bleachers, along with Iams and his wife, Darcy.

Lady Bulldog middle blocker Cassie Brill, waiting for Shealy to begin her next race, said she was excited just watching Shealy compete.

"I think it's great," said Brill. "Courtney, she works her butt off, and she's finally getting some recognition for it. I really just think it's amazing.

"Originally, when I was in high school, I wanted to play basketball and volleyball both in college. But when it comes down to reality, I mean, it takes a LOT. She does find time for a social life, and she does well in school, too. I mean, the girl's amazing…For us to watch her swim, and know she's going to be playing with us in a couple of hours, it's pretty neat."

Before long, Shealy was back on the starting block for the 50-yard freestyle, perhaps her strongest event. At 3:45 p.m., she shot off the block and sliced through the water in the fastest race in swimming. Shealy led early, then started to fall behind her freshman teammate Stefanie Williams, after the turn. The two approached the wall, and Williams edged out Shealy, finishing in 23 seconds flat, .23 seconds ahead of Shealy.

Later, Shealy would say how much she hated to lose that race. But Shealy hadn't been in the pool in seven days, nursing her slightly sprained left ankle. Just the fact that she did so well was a tribute to her skill, Bauerle said.

"Courtney did just what she needed, she got our relay going," he said. "Because of her sprained ankle, she hasn't touched water since last Friday, so that's fairly remarkable. I wish I had a few like that. That's an amazing situation, because usually, you lose the feel of the water real quickly."

The one-two finish by Williams and Shealy in the 50 free gave the Lady Bulldogs a big lead in the team scoring, and with the win apparently in hand, Bauerle decided to pull Shealy out of her last scheduled event, the 100 free, and let her rest up for volleyball.

"I think she's starting tonight, and that's one of the reasons we took her out of the 100," said Bauerle. "We needed her right in the beginning of the meet to set the tone, and she pretty well helped us do that, she was pretty well set to go."

Shealy spent the rest of the meet cheering for her team, then took time out to get a rubdown at the poolside massage table. Even on the table, lying face-down, she would occasionally pop her head up and scream encouragement to her teammates.

"I'm glad I finally got started," she said. "I didn't even realize it got this built up, which was fine, I was excited about it, but I was ready to get started. I had a good meet, I had two really good times -- especially since I've been out of the water for a week with my ankle, so I'm real happy.

"Right now this is kind of relaxing for me. I'm going to get a baked potato to eat, then I'm going to stay here as long as I can to cheer on my team, then probably head over there so I can get treatment and taped up and stuff like that for the volleyball."

An hour or two later, the Georgia men's and women's swimming teams were wrapping up their big victories over the Gators (the women won 155-90, the men 148-95), and Shealy was in her second uniform of the day.

She wandered around in the corridors of the volleyball arena, a perplexed look on her face. The volleyball team bus had not yet arrived from the hotel, so she was all dressed up with nothing to do. The woman who is a full-time member of two teams stood alone for a while.

"Where are they?" she said anxiously at 5:30. "I'm so impatient."

When assistant volleyball coach Melinda Claiborne showed up minutes later, a smile crossed Shealy's face. Back to normal.

Within 90 minutes, Shealy and her teammates were lined up on one end of the volleyball court in the middle of the O'Connell Center. Shealy stepped forward and acknowledged the polite applause -- most of which came from her parents -- as she was introduced along with the Lady Bulldogs' other five starters.

After a laser-light introduction for the Gator team that was reminiscent of the pre-NBA lockout Chicago Bulls extravaganzas, the chair referee blew his whistle and the match was under way. Shealy had officially done it.

She played most of the match, which took an hour and 19 minutes, and did fairly well while her team struggled. The Gators, ranked sixth in the nation, had little trouble with the Lady Bulldogs, taking the first two games by scores of 15-8 and 15-3.

"I just wanted them to play so well here," said Shealy's mother, Dianne, between the second and third games of the Gator rout. "But that's how it goes. She'll probably be glad when it's over."

Before long, Florida had closed out the match with another 15-3 game, and it was indeed over.

Shealy, showing her first signs of fatigue all day, walked off the court with her head down, moving into the locker room along with the rest of the team. It's been a tough year for the Lady Bulldogs, with injuries limiting the squad, and it's never fun to lose twice as many matches as you've won.

But Iams found a way to cheer his team up a bit after it fell to 6-13 on the year. He unveiled a surprise present for his players: tickets to Saturday's Georgia-Florida football game in Jacksonville.

"I'm so excited," exclaimed Shealy.

After briefly meeting with three reporters from Gainesville to discuss her day, Shealy went back into the locker room and selected the most comfortable chair. Finally, there was a little time to reflect on what she had accomplished.

"There's something special there, I'm excited now," she said. "I'm excited that it's done with, and that I made it through both -- I knew I wasn't going to die, but I'm not as tired right now as I thought I might be."

With a sigh, and a slight adjustment to one of her ice bags, she finally stated the obvious.

"I'm tired," she said. "My adrenaline's still pumping, I'm excited, but I think I'll sleep real well tonight."