NCAA tournament teams aren’t built overnight, as Baylor volleyball coach Jim Barnes is plenty aware.

“We’re a work in progress,” Barnes said.

Fortunately, Baylor closed out its home-standing Baylor Classic with some gritty work on which it can build. The Bears limited Butler to a meager .169 hitting percentage in a 3-0 tournament-closing sweep Saturday night at the Ferrell Center.

The victory helped soften the blow of Baylor’s 3-2 loss to SMU earlier in the day. The Mustangs won all three of their matches on the weekend to take the tourney title.

Plenty of work left

Barnes said he had a “long list” of things his team needed to improve upon, one of which was maintaining a steady rhythm from the service line.

“It all starts with the service game,” Barnes said. “If we’re serving tough, we’re able to put teams on their heels. Our defense can be one of the best in the nation, but you have to serve tough to create those points. When we did that, we dominated matches. When we got passive serving, we let teams back in it.”

Early on against Butler, the Bears tallied points more with placement than with power. With Butler consistently getting a fingertip or two on Baylor’s spikes in the first set, Baylor began tipping and dinking the ball over the Bulldog blockers with success.

Still, Butler hung in, taking a 24-23 lead late in the set when returning all-American Jessica Wolfe squirted a deflected spike through the BU defense.

But Baylor fought off the set point, then took the set, 26-24, moments later on a well-placed Allison King kill.

The Bears (2-1) began to seize control midway through the second set. The most raucous cheer of the night followed an extra-long volley which culminated with the BU point when setter Brittany Ridenour pulled a sneak-attack, dropping in a kill on a fake set.

“It’s awesome (on those long volleys), because it’s a team effort,” said Ridenour, who finished with 24 assists and six digs, including two diving stabs on that volley. “You can celebrate together, because you know everyone gave their all on that one point.”

Baylor rode that momentum to a 25-17 second-set win, then won the third set by the same score. Junior Allison King, who is shifting from libero to outside hitter this season, soared for five of her career-high 10 kills in the final set.

Ashlie Christenson notched a double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs, while King had 13 digs. Barnes said he was especially pleased with the all-out effort of libero Caitlyn Trice, who scooped up 18 digs on her way to winning defensive MVP of the tournament.

Wolfe recorded a match-high 14 kills for Butler (0-3), but Baylor limited her to a .184 hitting percentage.

Joining Trice on the all-tournament team for Baylor were Christenson and middle blocker Elizabeth Graham. SMU’s Dana Powell, who blasted 14 kills to spark the Mustang win over Baylor earlier Saturday, was selected as the tourney MVP.

The Bears return to the court Wednesday at UT-San Antonio.