Why does meshc change my figure's "NextPlot" property?

I have a figure with the NextPlot property set to "new". When I use the plot command in the command window a new figure pops up instead of overwriting what's on the figure currently. When I check the NextPlot property it is still "new". If I use meshc, however, the mesh is put into the current figure and NextPlot gets changed to "add". Why is this? Is there a fix? (Using R2015a)