The No. 9 University of Arkansas women’s golf team fired a second consecutive 8-under 280 and added a stroke to its lead at the NCAA Las Vegas Regional on Tuesday.

Junior Kendal Todd, a former UNLV golfer, shot a 66 on one of her former home courses to join Arkansas teammates Kajal Mistry and Maria Jose Marin in the top five at the 6,665-yard Spanish Trail Country Club course 6 miles from the Vegas Strip.

The Razorbacks, who got eagles from Marin and sophomore Reagan Zibilski, tied sixth seed Purdue for the day’s best round and lead the Boilermakers (12 under) by four shots heading into the final round Wednesday.

“I’d love to get a third day of an 8 under,” Arkansas Coach Shauna Taylor said. “Again, I think an absolute team effort.”

Top seed and No. 4 UCLA carded a 5 under and sits in third place at 2 under. No. 19 Florida State (1 under), the regional’s fourth seed, is also under par, followed by Baylor (2 over), second-seed Arizona (5 over), Oklahoma (5 over) and California (14 over) in the top eight.

The top five finishers in the six NCAA regionals will comprise the 30-team field for the NCAA Championships on May 17-22 in Carlsbad, Calif.

Colorado State is in ninth place at 16 over, followed by Kent State (18 over), Dartmouth (35 over) and Xavier (36 over).

Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad, the ACC player of the year and winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last month, shot 5-under 67 to take the lead by a stroke over Mistry, who shot 3 under Tuesday.

UCLA’s Zoe Campos had the day’s best round with a 65 to reach 7 under and third place. Marin and Todd are tied at 5 under.

Mistry, the first-round leader, had four birdies Tuesday and carded her first bogey of the regional on the par-3 14th.

Marin opened her round with an eagle on the 365-yard first hole by holing a wedge from 86 yards then played the rest of her round at 1 over, with a birdie on the par-5 eighth countered by bogeys on 7 and 14.

Todd’s 66 featured four birdies on the front nine called “Canyon,” and three birdies on the “Lakes” back nine offset by only one bogey on 7.

“I can’t say enough about Kendall Todd today,” Taylor said. “She made some amazing clutch putts and she scrambled when she needed to scramble. It was a pleasure to watch. Then Kajal, great job again playing in the 1 spot for us. … [Marin] eagling her first hole and kind of holding it steady coming in. Just across the board, great teamwork.

“We’ve got one more day to go on this business trip and hopefully put ourselves in a good position.”

Arkansas senior Miriam Ayora had the final counting score with a 2-over 74 that featured three birdies and five bogeys. She is in a tie for 25th place.

Zibilski had an adventurous round of 76 capped by her 10-foot eagle putt on the 510-yard 18th after she carded five bogeys, a double bogey and one birdie on the first 17 holes. Zibilski is tied for 44th place.

The Razorbacks will tee off on No. 1 at 10 a.m. Central in the final round Wednesday with Purdue and UCLA.

A Pulaski County Circuit judge dismissed blogger Matt Campbell’s lawsuit against Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday.

Campbell sued Sanders in October, claiming her office violated the state Freedom of Information Act. Campbell spent weeks last fall using the FOIA and his Blue Hog Report blog to scrutinize the governor’s office’s use of public funds, including $19,000 spent on a lectern.

Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed a motion Monday to dismiss Campbell’s case because the plaintiff did not deliver the lawsuit’s summons and complaint to Sanders’ office within 120 days of filing the complaint, according to court documents.

Before Monday, there had been no action in the case since February, when Campbell filed a motion asking for more time to deliver the documents. Judge LaTonya Honorable never granted the request.

Campbell said Tuesday that he will refile the lawsuit with additional allegations of FOIA violations. He said he has been planning to do so for weeks and let the deadline to serve process pass on purpose.

Griffin said in a news release that the dismissal was “the proper outcome for this baseless case” and that “cases like this waste taxpayer dollars and clog up our judicial system.”

Campbell, who was a practicing attorney before the Arkansas Times hired him as a reporter last year, said he found it laughable that Griffin “would file a procedural motion and try to tout it as a win.”

Arkansas lawmakers question governor’s lectern purchase, potential law violations found in audit

In September, Campbell revealed on X that Sanders’ office had used a state-issued credit card to buy the lectern and a travel case for $19,029 from a Virginia-based event design and management firm with political ties to Sanders.

“Lecterngate” subsequently led to national and international attention for the Sanders administration. Arkansas Legislative Audit investigated the purchase from October to March and published a report in April detailing several instances of potential lawbreaking by Sanders’ staff throughout the purchase, delivery and record-keeping process.

Cortney Kennedy, Sanders’ chief legal counsel who defended the lectern purchase before lawmakers last month, denied two of Campbell’s FOIA requests to the governor’s office on Oct. 23, according to court documents.

Campbell requested:

• First Gentleman Bryan Sanders’ Outlook calendar.
• All messages to and from Bryan Sanders’ two state email addresses.
• “Aall bills of lading or other documents showing shipping and/or delivery of the lectern ordered from Beckett Events,” the firm that sold the lectern.
• “All communications sent from (or on behalf of) the Governor’s Office to any person making a FOIA request” since Jan. 1, 2023.

Kennedy claimed Campbell’s requests went against the FOIA’s exemption for “[u]npublished memoranda, working papers, and correspondence of the Governor.”

Campbell filed the lawsuit the next day, claiming that Kennedy’s denial of the requests was illegal because Bryan Sanders is not a state employee and therefore the exemption she cited did not apply.

In September, Sanders called a special legislative session and supported several exemptions to the FOIA that met bipartisan opposition in the Legislature and from the public. The only FOIA change that made it through the Legislature was an exemption for records related to the governor’s security. Sanders signed Act 7 of 2023 the day before Campbell made the lectern purchase public knowledge.

Bill to shield Arkansas officials’ security records moves forward

Sanders called the special session three days after Campbell filed a previous lawsuit over unanswered FOIA requests for Arkansas State Police communications related to security for the governor and first gentleman, as well as documents reflecting ASP security costs for the Sanderses.

Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, Act 7’s House sponsor, mentioned the lawsuit while encouraging his fellow House members to vote for the bill. The lawsuit was dismissed after Campbell contracted COVID-19 and was unable to appear in court.

In October, Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, requested the audit into the lectern purchase and an additional probe into “significant expenditures involving the governor’s office” shielded by Act 7. Lead auditor Roger Norman said in April that the second audit was still in the early stages.