| Tonya Cardoza | |
| Current Title: | Assistant Coach |
| Current Team: | Connecticut |
| Current Conference: | Big East |
| Birth Date: | 2 April 1968 |
| Birth Place: | Roxbury, Massachusetts |
| Player Years1: | 1987–1991 |
| Player Team1: | Virginia |
| Coach Years1: | 1994–2008 |
| Coach Team1: | Connecticut (asst.) |
| Coach Years2: | 2008–2022 |
| Coach Team2: | Temple |
| Coach Years3: | 2023–present |
| Coach Team3: | Connecticut (asst.) |
Tonya Maria Cardoza (born April 2, 1968) is an NCAA women's basketball coach and the former[1] head coach of the Temple University women's basketball team. She previously played basketball for the University of Virginia 1988–1991, and worked as an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut for fourteen seasons before joining the Temple coaching staff in 2008.
Cardoza grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, near Boston, where she played high school basketball at Boston English High, where she earned all-state player honors.
Cardoza played for the Virginia Cavaliers between 1987 and 1991. She graduated in 1991 with a degree in anthropology. The team won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season in 1987, 1988 and 1991. She was named captain her senior year, led the team in scoring with 15.5 points per games, and helped the team reach the 1991 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament Final Four, where they beat the Connecticut Huskies in the semifinal, then lost in overtime in the championship game. Cardoza was named to the Final Four All-Tournament team along with teammate Dawn Staley.
In the semifinal game against Connecticut, Cardoza was assigned to cover Kerry Bascom, Uconn's best player. Bascom described the defense by Cardoza as like nothing she had ever seen before. In a humorous foreshadowing, on one play, Cardoza was stumbling toward the UConn bench. Head coach Auriemma "playfully ushered her toward a seat with the Huskies"
Cardoza is the holder of several records at Virginia, including:
Cardoza scored 35 points in a game against Fordham on December 28, 1988.
Cardoza briefly played in 1992 as a professional basketball player in Segovia, Spain following her graduation from Virginia.
Cardoza was selected by USA Basketball to play on the U.S. Olympic Festival East team in 1987. The team played four games; in the final game Cardoza scored 13 to help the team win the bronze medal at the event.
Cardoza was hired as an assistant coach prior to the 1994–95 season. The Huskies went on to win their first national championship in her first year on the bench.
Cardoza was an accomplished assessor of talent. In 2002, Maria Conlon was the only player from Connecticut on the UConn roster. Head coach Auriemma was not convinced she could be "counted on to contribute on a meaningful level". However, Cardoza shared her assessment with the head coach, "You're looking at our starting point guard next year". Conlon would go on to be the starting point guard for the next two seasons, and helped lead the Huskies to a National Championships in 2004, dishing out six assist and recording zero turnovers in 39 minutes of the championship game.
In 2008 Dawn Staley, a Virginia teammate of Cardoza, left the Temple head coaching position to become the head coach at the University of South Carolina. Cardoza was named to replace Staley as head coach at Temple. Cardoza joked that she was surprised Temple was so good defensively, quipping that Staley hadn't been much of a defensive player in college. But it was a good-natured jab between former teammates. Cardoza and Staley had both played for Virginia in their playing careers. She followed the jab with serious respect, noting that Staley "set the bar".
Cardoza guided the Owls to the NCAA tournament in her first three seasons at the helm, twice reaching the second round. In 2012, despite a second place finish in the Atlantic 10, the Owls settled for the Women’s NIT. Temple failed to reach the postseason following the 2012-2013 season, their last in the Atlantic 10.
Following the 2013 season, Temple transitioned to the American Athletic Conference, which was a step up in competition. Over the next eight seasons under Cardoza’s leadership, the Owls would earn only one NCAA tournament appearance, bowing out in the first round of the 2017 competition.
On March 22, 2022, Temple announced that Cardoza would not return for the 2022–23 season. She finished her career as Temple's all-time winningest coach with a record of 251-188.[2]