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Rebels, Wildcats take home 2025 NB3 Matchplay titles
Arizona’s Julia Misemer gets ready to putt on hole nine at the 2025 NB3 Matchplay Tournament at Twin Warriors Golf Course. Oct. 7, 2025.
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SANTA ANA PUEBLO — Wildcats and Rebels. Unmatched in Match Play.
On Wednesday, the University of Arizona women’s golf team and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas men’s golf team took home first place in the 2025 NB3 Matchplay Tournament at Twin Warriors Golf Course.
It was opposite sides of the spectrum for the men’s and women’s fields, as the Wildcats continued their dominance from day one, while the Rebels sneaked out a victory in a three-way battle with the Lobos and NMSU Aggies.
UNLV entered the final round with a one-point lead in first place, with UNM and NMSU both just a point behind and tied for second. Sin City’s golf crew would need a lot to go their way in their third-round matchup with Oregon, not just looking for a win, but also earning enough points to fend off any Lobo or Aggie comeback.
The Ducks did not make it easy on the Rebels. Oscar Lent and Jay Gould-Healy combined for seven birdies on the day, including an eagle from Gould-Healy on the par-5 eighth hole. They both took their matches, leaving just three points up for grabs and less breathing room for UNLV.
In the other matchup, the Aggies and Lobos dueled for the right to upstage the first-place Rebs. The rivalry was back and forth all afternoon, but it all came down to the final pairing of UNM’s Thayer Plewe and NMSU’s Mateo Payán.
Plewe led the match by three holes with five holes to go, but then Payán caught fire.
The day-one standout continued his tear when the Aggies needed it most, posting three straight birdies to tie the match with two holes left.
Payán and the Aggies had the momentum, but Plewe had an answer. The freshman showed off some ice water in his veins with a birdie on 17, giving him a one-hole victory and a 3-2 Lobo lead.
The Rebels would now need to secure a minimum of 2.5 points of the remaining three on the board to stay in first and bring home the trophy. Seems like a tall task? Not for Trevor Lewis and Ryan Abuan.
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Both trailing in their matches at various points, the upperclassmen combined for five birdies on the back nine. Behind these two clutch performances and a dominant win from Wyatt Plattner, the Rebels took their flight home with a trophy in hand.
“We got some good players. We game, they love to compete,” UNLV head coach Jean-Paul Hebert told GOLF Channel after the round. “They showed me that they love to compete and they enjoy being rebels. They enjoy playing for UNLV.”
Similar to UNM and NMSU, Texas A&M thought they could pull off some final-round magic to jump in front of the Wildcats.
Arizona had other plans.
UofA took three of the five matches to put the contest to bed. The Aggies needed a lot to go their way, and Arizona’s excellent play made things that much harder.
The biggest matchup of the day was A&M’s Louise Reau versus UofA’s Kinsley Ni, two big names from day one of the tourney. Reau was up by two holes at one point on the front nine, but a Ni avalanche on the back flipped the match upside down, with the highly-ranked freshman posting three birdies and an eagle to give the Wildcats a full point.
Texas A&M gave the Wildcats a run for their money, but as senior Nena Wongthanavimok said after her Wednesday match victory, the do-or-die mentality of the final round kept Arizona going.
“It’s now or never,” Wongthanavimok told GOLF Channel. “It’s what the seniors should be doing (securing points), and I think I did a pretty good job about it today.”
The second annual NB3 Matchplay is now officially in the books. As this collegiate tourney grows bigger and bigger as a fall tradition in Santa Ana Pueblo, it leaves fans asking one question: What teams are coming next year?
