Twelve senior women have been named to this year’s Homecoming Court, and one will be crowned Homecoming Queen during the Saturday football game.

The court includes:

• Marti Bowen
• Maddy Crockett
• Allison Cross
• Camryn Eason
• Ellie Kate Gorman
• Lauren Gumm
• Aubree Herrold
• Maggie Hess
• Hannah Holst
• Maddy Kean
• Madison Morel
• Sarina Smith.

Nominations started about four weeks before Homecoming, during which the Office of Alumni Relations gave the student body the option to nominate five of their senior peers for the court. The alumni office typically selects the top 10 to 14 nominees for the court.

“Just to be on the Homecoming Court is a tremendous honor, and every person included deserves recognition,” April Young, alumni and university relations officer said.

“I believe that it means you are a leader on our campus, it means that students on our campus see you as a strong woman of faith,” Young said. “I hope to celebrate them in a way that helps them feel that they are loved at ACU in hopes that they want to stay connected with the university in the future.”

The festivities for the women of the Homecoming Court will begin Friday with an afternoon tea. The nominees are encouraged to invite important women in their lives to the tea. They also will be celebrated in the Homecoming Parade, where they will ride in convertibles, along with the ‘Coming Home Court,’ which is compromised of the 2011 Homecoming Court. The nominees will finally be honored during half time of the Homecoming football game, where they will walk the field with an escort.

The nominees include women of all different backgrounds, skills and majors from engineering to nursing.

“I thought that there was no way I would be nominated for the court because there are just so many girls here,” Maddy Kean, senior speech pathology major from McKinney said. “It is really exciting and makes me feel very loved and cherished at ACU. It makes me feel really special.”