Achieving much success this year seemed improbable for Suffolk Christian Academy’s golf team from the outset of the season.

The Knights featured 10 players, nine of which were first-year participants.

But the squad ended up with plenty to celebrate in 2015, concluding its season on Thursday with a 32-stroke victory over Summit Christian Academy at the Nansemond River Golf Club.

“We won 70 percent, at least, of all our matches, and that was a total surprise,” Suffolk Christian coach Mike Bigony said.

When a team features the level of inexperience that the Knights did, “you just really don’t expect too much,” Bigony said. “You know you’re going to have improvement, but you just don’t know how it’s going to develop.”

He said he and his players worked hard on fundamentals all the way through the season, “and it paid off.”

The Hampton Roads Athletic Conference had only two golf teams this year, Suffolk Christian and Summit Christian, and the Knights won the conference, having defeated the Eagles three times.

Suffolk Christian’s one returner, senior team captain Caleb Hayes, was key for the Knights this season.

“Caleb Hayes was the anchor of the team,” Bigony said. “He was the medalist in most of the matches.”

Senior Alex Griffith also had a big impact on the team.

“Alex and Caleb were the hub, even though Alex was a first-year player,” Bigony said.

The coach said he wished he could have had Griffith on the team as a sophomore or junior so as to have more time to help him develop.

“He’s a strong player,” Bigony said.

In team golf, wins and losses are measured by a team’s collective score, and that score is derived from a sum of individual golfers’ scores on the team.

This meant that Hayes and Griffith could do well, individually, but they would still need some teammates to generate decent scores to help put the team in a good position to win.

Bigony said when junior Zach Legg and sophomore Julia Powell elevated their games during the season, the Knights started winning.

Legg actually earned the medalist honor on Thursday, signifying he produced the lowest score.

Bigony said Legg has power and is learning to apply the fundamentals to his swing.

But he noted Legg could have produced an even lower score with better putting. The coach said 60 percent of the game is putting and chipping.

“Working on your short game, that is where your score is substantially reduced,” Bigony said. “(Legg) told me he is going to work on it.”

Powell played with Legg on Thursday in the second group.

“She is rapidly developing,” Bigony said. “She has a good attitude, and so I think with that, we just have to see what happens.”

He hopes to help his returning players grow further this offseason, together with the Nansemond River Golf Club’s PGA Professional, Mark Lambert.

“Mark and I will be doing a summer clinic again for player development,” Bigony said.