The De Pere girls tennis program has had several notable standouts over the years, but as good as those players were and as hard as they worked, none won a WIAA state championship before graduating.
Until now.
The Redbirds’ No. 1 doubles team of junior Maria Cristescu and senior Lillianna Graf made history Oct. 17, becoming the first individuals from De Pere to win a state tennis title.
Girls team. Boys team.
It never happened on either side until Cristescu and Graf put the finishing touches on a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 win over the Hartland Arrowhead duo of Isabella Heidenberger and Iris Liu in the Division 1 doubles title match at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison.
Their accomplishment goes beyond just the walls of De Pere.
They are the first local D1 girls doubles team to win a state championship since the tournament started in 1971.
The Green Bay Notre Dame team of Jenny Spears and Amy Lewis won the D2 title in 2003, while Notre Dame’s Katie Pott and Christina Schaupp followed with a D2 championship in 2010.
Cristescu and Graf entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed.
They received a bye in the first round, then beat Eau Claire Memorial’s Veronica Fesenmaier and Kate Berg 6-0, 6-1 in the second round Oct. 16.
The two followed later that day with a 6-0, 6-2 win over No. 13 seed Ella Motto and Evelyn Buss of Neenah in the third round and a 6-2, 6-2 win over Mequon Homestead’s Melina Fiorentini and Liliana Espinosa in the fourth.
But it was a victory over another Neenah pair to kick off the final day of state that really put Cristescu and Graf in position to pull off a championship.
Neenah junior Sydney Michalkiewicz and senior Rebekah Thomas were the No. 1 seed after entering the tournament 30-2 and placing fifth at state in 2025.
They looked the part after winning the first set of the semifinal against Cristescu and Graf, and it looked like they might pull off a straight-set win.
Until all heck broke loose the rest of the way.
“The second set was just insane,” longtime De Pere coach David Reinardy said. “We won in a set tiebreaker, but the tiebreaker score was 16-14. I think we fought off maybe seven match points. It was not only the tiebreaker for the set, but if Neenah had won the tiebreaker, then the match is over. It was pretty spectacular.”
And it only got better.
“Then the match tiebreaker was 10-7,” Reinardy said. “Lots of momentum shifts. Nobody was ahead too long. … We were actually pretty confident. We thought we matched up pretty well with them, and we thought we had weapons and tactics that would be effective.”
Cristescu and Graf advanced to face Heidenberger and Liu in the title match, getting an opportunity to avenge a 6-4, 7-5 loss to the two in August.
As De Pere co-coach Scott Harpt said, the teams are so close they could play 10 times and each might win five.
If that’s true, this was the perfect moment for De Pere to win one of its five.
“It was a back and forth dogfight,” Reinardy said of the title win. “Four players that can just beat the cover off the ball. All sorts of spins and angles and good serves and strong volleys and overheads.
“Just four players competing at a very high skill level.”
None of this would have even happened if things went differently at the beginning of the season.
Cristescu and Graf had hoped to team up from the start, but early on the coaching staff felt they needed the two to compete in singles.
Cristescu was a top doubles player in the area each of the previous two seasons while playing with her older sister Ana, who graduated as the program’s all-time victories leader with 117.
They finished third at state in 2025 and fourth in 2024.
Graf was a singles player during that span, twice making the big stage.
The two girls believed if the De Pere coaches let them play together in doubles rather than compete in singles, that they could end this season winning a state title.
After playing singles for a short time in August, and with the blessing of their teammates, they finally got their wish.
They went undefeated in Fox River Classic Conference play, won a sectional title and went 31-1.
Turns out, they were right. They finished the season champions.
“It turned out well for them, for sure,” Reinardy said.
What Cristescu and Graf accomplished will only do good things for the De Pere program moving forward.
“Whatever you can do as a coach and a school to encourage younger players to take up the game and see that there is fun and interest in it and they can be successful,” Reinardy said. “Get them started in a middle school program or even the primary school gym class. Kind of get them on the court.
“The more pub you get for that, and the more you can put a trophy in the display case or whatever symbol you want to talk about, that encourages people.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: De Pere tennis stars claim historic state title