Tonya Maria Cardoza (born April 2, 1968) is an NCAA women's basketball coach and the former 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. Early years 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. Virginia 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: Career blocks (110) fifth place Season rebounding leader (6.1) 1991 (tied with Staley) Career free throws made (338) seventh place Career Field Goal percentage (.478) eighth place Season Field Goal percentage (.469) 1989 Season Field Goal percentage (.544) 1991 Career points (1622) tenth place Cardoza scored 35 points in a game against Fordham on December 28, 1988. Professional Cardoza briefly played in 1992 as a professional basketball player in Segovia, Spain following her graduation from Virginia. USA Basketball 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. Connecticut Cardoza joined the UConn coaching staff in 1994, the year the Huskies won their first national title. Cardoza was an accomplished assessor of talent. In 2002, Maria Conlon was the only player from Connecticut on