Czech Sisters’ Travels Land Them in Court : Tennis: Marianna and Eva Kristofik came by way of Italy to Anaheim, where they’re Savanna’s No. 3 doubles team.

The slight accents reveal European roots and lend charm to the words of Marianna and Eva Kristofik as they recount perhaps the greatest adventure of their young lives.

The sisters, who are the No. 3 doubles tennis team at Savanna High School, were born in two different towns in the Slovakia region of Czechoslovakia and came to Anaheim with their parents in January, 1986.

How they got here wasn’t exactly orthodox.

“We went to Italy on a vacation and just didn’t go back,” said Marianna, 18. “We basically ran away.”

That was in the summer of 1985, when the family was granted a vacation in Latina, a resort 37 miles southeast of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Czech government then in power typically issued permits to people with health problems for limited jaunts to similar locations for therapeutic purposes. Eva, Marianna and their father, Dushan, had asthma and qualified for such a trip. Their mother, Helen, did not.

By then, the family had decided to defect if it got permission to travel abroad. But it was either all of them or nobody. So Helen did the only reasonable thing--she bribed the family doctor with a bottle of champagne to certify that she, too, suffered from the chronic disorder. Even then, the Kristofiks weren’t sure their plan would work.

“They (the authorities) were really concerned about letting entire families go at the same time because of things like this (defections),” Eva, 17, said.

Much to their surprise, however, they received approval and left for what was supposed to be a three-week vacation. Two weeks later, they were in a Latina refugee camp for defectors from Eastern-bloc communist countries.

The arrangements were made soon after their arrival in Latina by Dushan, a chemist who worked 20 years for the government-owned petroleum industry and who now plies his trade at an Anaheim firm. He didn’t know who or what to look for, but fortunately found the answer almost immediately.

“I just went to Rome and I saw a monastery very close to the train station,” Dushan said. “I met a guy at the station who said he knew someone who spoke Slavic and put me in touch with him. It turned out to be a priest at that monastery. He helped us stay.”

After two months at the refugee camp, the family stayed at a hotel another two months. After approval of their visas to emigrate to the United States, the Kristofiks waited three months in a Rome hotel for their airline tickets. Their expenses were paid by the U.S. Embassy and the International Refugee Center.

For the girls, the decision to emigrate was exciting but also difficult. They didn’t want to leave their grandparents or their sporting activities. Eva participated in a club where she practiced the ancient trick of vaulting over horses while they’re in full gallop, and Marianna took judo classes. They also played soccer.

“I loved it there,” said Eva, 17. “My vaulting team was the second best (youth) team in Slovakia.”

Still, it didn’t take long for the sisters to get used to life in Southern California. They took up tennis when they entered Brookhurst Elementary School in Anaheim and continued to play at Savanna. They posted a 23-7 Orange League record (44-13 overall) this season in helping the Rebels to a second-place finish behind Valencia and a berth in the Southern Section playoffs.

Their success is remarkable because their size dictates they play finesse instead of power tennis. Marianna, a senior, is 5 feet and Eva, a junior, is 5-2.

“They are very determined players,” Savanna Coach Eric Hansen said. “They play a doubles game that’s a waiting type of game. They wait for the other players to make mistakes. It has worked for them real well.”

After the tennis season, the girls move on to other sports. Marianna runs the 100-yard dash, the 110-yard intermediate hurdles and is on Savanna’s 440-yard relay team. Eva runs the 880 and competes in the long jump. Both are on the soccer squad, where Marianna is a forward-halfback and Eva is a center-halfback.

The family’s assimilation reached the ultimate height on Oct. 11, when Eva, Helen and Dushan became U.S. citizens in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Because Marianna turned 18 before the ceremony, she could not be accepted for citizenship as part of the family nucleus. Instead, she has to apply on an individual basis. She was dejected, but not deterred.

“I was disappointed. I was hoping we could do it together,” Marianna said. “Now I have to wait about another six months.”

But Marianna is not in a hurry. She said her family is here for good. And if they ever moved elsewhere, it wouldn’t be back home, despite recent political reforms there.

“Eva and I went back to Czechoslovakia to visit this summer,” Marianna said. “They still have so many problems. If someone asked me if I would go back now, I’d say no. People have more opportunities here.”